Out Of Touch Egghead To Pontificate on Second Life

by Alphaville Herald on 24/10/09 at 8:23 pm

Herald founder keynotes 2009 Compass Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference

Uri2 The Herald's own Urizenus Sklar – who is widely believed to be self-identical – will present a virtual keynote titled "Virtual Communities, Virtual Cultures, Virtual Governance" for the Compass Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference Monday October 26.

Virtually viewable here http://compassconference.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/ludlow/ after the virtual presentation Monday – the virtual keynote will be followed by virtual cocktails at 1 PM EDT at the virtual "meet the virtual speaker" session to be held in Second Life's Abacadabra sim: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Abracadabra/201/90/31.

It's going to be virtually impossible to miss this event, because Uri's real real life typist is believed to be Peter Ludlow – Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. Hehas worked on a number of topics at the intersection of philosophy,linguistics, and cognitive science, and has also published a number ofworks on the emergence of community and governance in virtual worlds,including High Noon on the Electronic Frontier (MIT Press 1995) and Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias (MIT Press, 2001). 

His most recent work, co-authored with Mark Wallace, is The Second Life Herald: the Virtual Tabloid that Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse (MITPress 2007). Reflecting the boundary crashing content of that work, thebook received the American Association of Publishers,Professional/Scholarly Publishing award for “Best Book in Media andCultural Studies, 2007”, was a Choice “Outstanding Academic Title, 2008”, and a Library Journal “TopSci-Tech Book, 2007,” (ranked one of top 39 science books of 2007 andtop book in category of Computer Science). In 2006, MTV.com namedLudlow one of the ten most influential video game players of all time.

Be there – or be virtual!

15 Responses to “Out Of Touch Egghead To Pontificate on Second Life”

  1. Jumpman Lane

    Oct 24th, 2009

    any chance of a virtual who cares hehehehe

  2. lame

    Oct 24th, 2009

    well that sounds pretty lame. when you engineer another anti-russian psyop like the “Ban Prok” one that dovetailed into the sion chicken griefing strafing runs then come back and crow. until then… video games, really?

  3. Urizenus Sklar

    Oct 24th, 2009

    I implore everyone to NOT grief this event. It is serious business!

  4. pixeleen mistral

    Oct 25th, 2009

    I also beg *everyone* to avoid disrupting this event! please!!!

    The future of SL (Suit Life) hangs in the balance now that LL has decided that they will pick and choose which viewers will be allowed to visit the metaverse. Besides, Uri is in a fortified bunker in the upper midwest and tells me he is prepared to meet the challenge of the new frontier.

    “We’re gonna have a wingding
    A summer smoker underground
    It’s just a dugout that my dad built
    In case the reds decide to push the button down
    We’ve got provisions and lots of beer
    The key word is survival on the new frontier”

    so .. be nice … k?

  5. Witness X

    Oct 25th, 2009

    So, it is ok for everyone to grief other events, but not this one because it is you? Yet the Herald doesn’t stand up to griefers any other time – rather, you laugh with them, party with them and enjoy the lulz. Now you beg them to not hurt you, but you were privy to their activities, were friendly with them and enjoyed them hurting others.

    Talk about calling the kettle black.

  6. Mexican Pirate

    Oct 25th, 2009

    I implore EVERYONE to grief this event! IT IS SERIOUS BUSINESS!!

    lol

  7. Urizenus Sklar

    Oct 25th, 2009

    Gentle People! In the first case the Herald has never defended griefing. To the contrary it has tirelessly fought back against it since the dawn of the metaverse. The list of griefer groups that we have exposed and pilloried in the virtual press is long and storied. From the Hotel Erotica and Free Money for Newbies scam houses to the Sim Mafia and Sim Soviet Republic to the W-Hats and PN, the Herald has exposed these miscreants and ne’r do wells for what they are and lobbied the game gods to stamp them out.

    And now that these griefer groups have been soundly defeated and the miscreants have been sent back to their wee chat boards to fap to hentai, the metaverse is again safe for the conduct of serious business. You can come to this event and thank the Herald for that.

  8. Mary Elizabeth

    Oct 25th, 2009

    Uri,

    You have a talent for writing satire.

    Bravo!

  9. Septimus Severus Legume, Tragic & Misunderstood Poet

    Oct 25th, 2009

    Out-of-touch Eggheads of the world, hearken to my plaintive cry!

    Then we can pontificate to each other and our Sion Chickens…oh the misery of life.

    Some avatars grief with malicious code and fart-noises. Others merely bring you the grief of an overburdened world that does not appreciate sensitive souls.

    I must go lie down. I am overwrought.

  10. Urizenus Sklar

    Oct 25th, 2009

    Septimus, that is my talk in a nutshell.

  11. Jumpman Lane

    Oct 25th, 2009

    ok… how bout an actual who cares hehehehe

  12. Urizenus Sklar

    Oct 26th, 2009

    Talk is up, but they took out all the F-bombs and all the slides that had words on them.

    Here you go: http://compassconference.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/ludlow/

  13. marilyn murphy

    Oct 26th, 2009

    i missed this because it was billed as a serious event. or was that serious?

  14. Gecko Alchemi

    Nov 3rd, 2009

    You can see Urizenus Sklar’s fascinating talk here: http://compassconference.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/ludlow/

  15. Prof. Archie Lukas

    Nov 16th, 2009

    Typical Academic

    They create nothing new, nothing useful and society gains (or really cares0 one iota.

    Tthis chap is just documenting other peoples work and pontificating on it.

    Professor of Bullshit, I assume.

Leave a Reply