The Alphaville Herald

Through the Summer Door

by Alphaville Herald on 17/03/05 at 10:27 pm

(Not Second Life)

The second in an occasional series from RL sci-fi scribe Budka Groshomme, who has been sharing with the Herald his first impressions of Second Life.

Becoming a resident of Second Life appears quite unlike entereing the traditional science-fictional cyberspace, a virtual world made real from nothing more than bits and bytes, where soaring data towers and numeric arcologies beckon from every side. Far different, this is, from ancient Tron. Although the general concept is the same, the scenery appears to be very different.

And what scenery! I watched giant snails race while I sat with a witch, a Dalek, a hovering gray rabbit, and Batman, who happened to be struggling mightily with what appeared to be giant brown tick. From there, I visited an erotic boutique, took lessons in basic prim-ology, and had a frank discussion of gender identity with a spider and a one-meter high mech.

Clearly, this ain’t Kansas no more.

This part of my journey has become interesting in another way. I quickly discovered that not all lands are open and welcoming. I’ve run hard into boundaries and been expelled summarily from others with little or no warning.

On the other hand, I’ve spoken to complete strangers and found them so open and willing to help that they become friends in a few moments. I am almost embarrassed at not be able to return their many kindnesses. Pay forward seems to be the golden rule — helping other poor sods in the future, passing along the kindness.

Discovering the parties is amazing! Every addiction, every pastime seems to be available, with no restrictions. In most venues there seems to be no law save the community consensus and only impinging on another’s rights can get you into trouble. Bad taste is allowed — no, not simply allowed but permitted to run rampant! It is a license to submerge yourself in unadulterated Bacchanalian feasts that you always dreamed of. Best yet, there’s no hangover, no necessity for the morning-after apology, and, best of all, you still have all your clothes in the morning.

On a sandy beach, a very attractive blonde befriends me and helps me figure out this pose thing. We chat pleasantly until a vagrant thought enters my mind. Although I clearly see a cute young lady before me I know not what the real “her” might be. Is she a grandmother, a mother, or a nubile miss barely out of her teens? Is “she” really a she at all for that matter? And would I react differently were she a rabbit, an orc, or a standard-issue Linden clone?

It bothers me that I was reacting viscerally to the young lady’s appearance. Yet I know why this is: People in the real world gravitate toward those who are attractive, whose features are symmetrical and who have a pleasant personality. All of those attributes are clues to good health and, therefore, the survival of the species. As a result we’ve evolved to gravitate toward others who possess them.

But that’s a foolish reaction in this world. That isn’t a real female before me. It’s just pixels dancing on my screen. Why should his/her/its appearance have anything to do with my behavior? Intellectually, I know that it should not. I am better than that.

Yet it clearly has influenced my choice of words with her and so, I cannot escape the fact that what I see dictates how I react, how I will impute things about her that I could not possibly know. So, who is it that I’m responding to on those subconscious levels where I have no control — the real person or the avatar?

She is a very cute blonde.

Is Second Life an epistemological puzzle, where I’m supposed to perceive the reality beyond the veil of my perceptions? Are these electronic images a deliberate subterfuge, a slight of eye trick to deceive me about who the blonde really is? Or am I supposed to share the consensual unreality, this shared dream, and accept this electronic playroom for the mind and eye, and take everything at face value? Do I pretend that I am speaking to the thing I see, or intellectualize this away and spoil the illusion?

I intend to ponder this as my journey continues. But, perhaps, later. At the moment there are simply too many new and different wonders to discover.

My journey continues.