Archive for 'Philosophical Issues'
All Things Sheeny: Reading Charlie Sheen to Find Meaning in a Secular Age
by Peter Ludlow and Charles Parsons* In a recently published book, Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Kelly argue that the crisis of our current age stems from the indecision and resulting nihilism that come from our having lost the system of values provided by monotheism. In the Christian age our correct course of action in all [...]
Full StoryThe Hall of Mirrors and The Real World
A note from the Alphaville Herald Editors Since the Alphaville Herald’s inception in 2003, we have covered the news of online worlds and societies like no one else. You’ve enjoyed tales of griefers, scammers, virtual mafias, virtual paramilitary organizations, epic trolls, perverts, furries, babyfurs, baby unicorns, goreans, elves, online Nazis, anti-Nazis, virtual communists, dirty dealing [...]
Full StoryOp/Ed: Avatars Have No Feelings
by FoxM Ember Is love an emotion or is it a choice? If actions speak louder than words, then an act of love towards someone is profoundly louder than simply uttering those three little words. So, is love here in SL a feeling or an action, a noun or a verb? Although we each must [...]
Full StoryIt Has To Be Said: Stop Calling it a Game
by Jessica Holyoke Second Life is like the Internet in many respects; its on the computer, no one knows that you are a fairy tale blind mouse and there is a heavy text and graphical basis for our interactions. And it looks like a video game; you can fly, you can be in space, you [...]
Full StoryA Techno-Communist Manifesto
Autonomous chicken-collective lags Linden lackey Neva by Pappy Enoch, Techno-Revolutionist I salute all working avatars of the fake worlds! A specter is haunting Second Life – the specter of Prokofy Neva. Yes, I mean the same avatar who claims to defy the cabal of Linden plutocrats by being an anti-collectivist “free-market capitalist.” I laugh in [...]
Full StorySaving Time in a Virtual Bottle
How is your time in Second Life best spent? by FoxM Ember What is time? “Time,” measured in minutes and hours, days and weeks – even here in SL. Is it simply an awareness of events and occurrences sorted in our minds in such a way, as to allow us to perceive them in an [...]
Full StoryHow The Simulacrum Killed Carmen Hermosillo
The first to warn are the first affected by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk In H+ magazine's A Virtual Life. An Actual Death Mark Stephen Meadows and Peter Ludlow make a compelling case that Carmen Hermosillo’s real life death last year was most likely the sort of suicide Carmen had warned against when she wrote [...]
Full StoryEye of the Beholder
by Jessica Holyoke Perception is reality. Its a phrase I learned when I held a supervisory position for a large multi-national before I went to law school. For some readers, this might be a surprise because my work experience would make me older than it would seem by my avatar and my previous statements. Most [...]
Full StoryBut Does That Make Me Gay?
by Lapis Philosophorum Reading "The Wanderer's" Gor series, there is an overarching concept that truly bothers me. The Wanderer writes that he will not besexually using or abusing the female slaves of Gor because it is morethan likely that there could be some gay guy fapping in the background — an all too common concern [...]
Full StoryThe Philosophical Parrot Of Socrates Cafe
Authentic dialogue in a synthetic world by Alessandra Narayan Tired of contests, free sex, acoustic live music, poor roleplay… one of those days or nights when everything seems to go wrong? Ok, there might be a solution if you’re into philosophy. Check out Socrates Cafe and you might end up in an intense debate that [...]
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