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 matters was clearly set forth, but now, every decision becomes a crisis. Aggregate these crises and the result is a culture of nihilism. Dreyfus and Kelly argue that the way out of this state is by taking the stance of the Homeric age in which we marvel at the surfaces of things and revel in the mystery of our world. We need to get caught up in the Whoosh of the moment.

Now, Peter Ludlow and his former graduate advisor Charles Parsons challenge the Homeric solution offered up by Dreyfus and Kelly. While Ludlow and Parsons do not take issue with the Dreyfus/Kelly critique of our current situation, they reject the thesis that the way out is found in the Homeric age. Rather, the way out of our predicament is found in the tiger-blood fueled insights of Charlie Sheen. “Forget whooshing,” they argue, “it’s about winning.”

Beginning with a nod to the Dreyfus/Kelly diagnosis of our current crisis, Ludlow and Parsons draw on the music of recent Internet phenomenon Rebecca Black. Ms. Black clearly illustrates the contemporary crisis of the secular age when, in her song “Friday” she is confronted with a daunting choice.

Kickin’ in the front seat

Sittin’ in the back seat

Gotta make my mind up

Which seat can I take?**

Rebecca Black, in effect, is articulating a situation that is definitionally nihilistic on the Dreyfus/Kelly model: nihilism is “the idea that there is no reason to prefer any answer to any other.” Indeed, should I kick it in the front seat or the back seat? As Ms. Black saw, the fragmented system of values of our current age sadly provides no guidance.

This is the sort of crisis that is now endemic in the contemporary world, but Sheen, Ludlow and Parsons contend, would never be paralyzed by a decision like this. As evidence they turn to a recent interview with Sheen.

I probably took more than anybody could survive. I was banging seven-gram rocks. Because that’s how I roll. I have one speed. I have one gear: Go. (Sheen)

Indeed, one can scarcely imagine Sheen fretting over where to sit. See the seat, take the seat. Don’t think, do. Go.

Sheen even resists the choices themselves when they are grounded in bad faith dichotomies. When a Good Morning America reporter asks him if he is bi-polar he rejects the attempted entrapment engineered by the nihilist reporter: “I’m bi-*winning*”, he responds.

Critical to living sheeny is that one infuse one’s life with poetry and magic, and that confronted with obstacles one brings these powers to bear on those obstacles. Although capable of defeating enemies with brute force, Sheen shows us how to defeat them with a combination of this poetry, magic and a few well-chosen words.

I’m sorry, man, but I’ve got magic. I’ve got poetry in my fingertips. Most of the time – and this includes naps – I’m an F-18, bro. And I will destroy you in the air. I will deploy my ordinance to the ground. (Sheen)

I have defeated this earthworm with my words. Imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists. (Sheen)

One might respond that Charlie Sheen just is a Homeric hero brought to life – that by endorsing the Charlie Sheen path, Ludlow and Parsons have ipso facto endorsed the positive thesis being put forward by Dreyfus and Kelly. Indeed it is worth comparing the Dreyfus/Kelly paean to the whoosh-worthy Nureyev with Sheen’s own self-assessment:

“Nureyev’s charisma was palpable; he stood taller, smelt better, walked prouder, and simply outshone all the others around him.” (Dreyfus and Kelly)

“I am on a drug – it’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available because if you try it, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.” (Sheen)

“I’m different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man.” (Sheen)

“If you borrowed my brain for five seconds, you’d be like, ‘Dude! Can’t handle it, unplug this bastard!’ It fires in a way that’s maybe not from, uh… this terrestrial realm.” (Sheen)

Comparisons like this might lead one to argue that winning just is whooshing – that the Ludlow/Parsons just is the Dreyfus/Kelly proposal, but this move is anticipated. Sheen is no mere Greek hero, according Ludlow and Parsons. Greek heroes were (usually) deferential to their gods and previous heroes. Charlie Sheen shows us that winning means we must move beyond. We must destroy our idols by out-winning them.

“The run I was on made Sinatra, Flynn, Jagger, Richards, all of them look like droopy-eyed, armless children.” (Sheen)

Indeed, Sheen may just as well have added the names Achilles, Theseus, Odysseus and Hercules to the list.

Finally Ludlow and Parsons take up the issue with the way that quantitative ways of measuring time have made us temporally uncentered agents no longer living in the moment. Here again they return to the music of Rebecca Black to illustrate their point. Ms. Black observes that though we may want to enjoy Dionysian revelry, we are inextricably thwarted by quantitative measures of time. Again, they turn to her poignant if nihilistic lyrics.

Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday
Today is Friday, Friday (Partyin’)
We-we-we so excited
We so excited
We gonna have a ball today



Tomorrow is Saturday

And Sunday comes after…wards
I don’t want this weekend to end

And then, as if to punctuate the end of revelry, the song immediately cuts to a rap break. The effect is heart breaking. But, as Ludlow and Parsons observe, there is still hope. We can become temporally centered and live in the moment again. They close with a final quote from Charlie Sheen as their antidote to our temporal predicament.

“Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them.”
(Charlie Sheen)

* Charles Parsons had nothing to do with this, but you knew that.
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0

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 virtual politicians, tales of favoritism, corruption, betrayal,  lots of Post Six Grrrls, and a few Post Six Guys. Through it all, one principle has remained constant: in the hall of mirrors that is the Interwebs we may never know the truth. That, and don’t drink that Moet crap.

We have watched several virtual worlds grow and then die over the last seven years, including The Sims Online, Lively, and Metaplace. We are now watching Second Life’s death spasms. We have come to realize the story was never about branded virtual real estate, but rather about the people who move like nomadic tribes, migrating across virtual worlds, the broader Net, and even the so-called real world.

Accordingly, we have not stayed confined to a branded space and have followed our subjects and audience – even into the real world – and reported accordingly. Crucially, in reporting those real world events like WikiLeaks and hacktivist actions, we have discovered we never left the hall of mirrors we navigated over the last seven years with the Herald.

Sometime we ask why traditional reporting suxxors soooo bad. Perhaps the answer is they simply can’t operate in a world of smoke and mirrors, where everyone is acting “in avatar” and true agendas are unknown. We may have not mastered the hall of mirrors, but we have lived here and find our calling is to extend the Herald’s charge beyond branded worlds to also encompass the world writ large. We like navigating in the shadowy world of hackers and spooks and Anonymous. This is where we are at home reporting. Who knows, perhaps we can even save civilization in the process.

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 define it for ourselves, I believe that those who limit their understanding of love to a “feeling,” are exponentially more likely to go through their second life, and possibly their real one, jumping from one relationship to the next, like a frog leaping from one Lillie pad to another as soon as it feels that it’s beginning to sink. Is it sinking though?

Such is the life of a great many of us here in SL who define love as pure emotion, hopping from one partner to another, from one “once-in-a-lifetime” romance to another, because at some point all feelings wane. There’s an ebb and flow to our life, real and second. One day the tides rolls in, the next it rolls out, but the ocean is unchanged…life goes on. Couples fall in love, passion and romance dominate their feelings, and many eventually make that lifelong commitment in real life, or partner with another in second life. Then, one day someone wakes up, often after having built days, or weeks, months or years of memories with their partner, and realize they are no longer “in” love with the person lying besides them. What happened? When did the tide go out?

Consider that it might be more truthful to wake up next to your partner and say, “Gee…the tide is out, so I choose to stop loving you.” True love is lasting…isn’t it…shouldn’t it be? How is true love even possible if it is dependant or even affected by our ever-changing feelings? We all have the Providence-given right to pursue true happiness in life, real or virtual, but if your happiness is dependant upon the ebb and flow of feelings, aren’t you destined to not only receive pain and sadness, but to give it?

By making love dependant on emotion, we conveniently remove the burden – or responsibility – of choice from ourselves. We become mere spectators on the beach, watching the tide roll in and feeling “in” love one moment, then – looking away for a moment – we turn back and see only the slimy, green decaying seaweed and driftwood lying on the shore, discarded by the ocean. “But, I want the sound of white horses relentlessly crashing into the shoreline, the passionate dance of waves mixing, churning in a beautiful mosaic of blues and greens and whites…and…now, it’s gone. I just turned around for a moment, and the ocean receded…my feelings aren’t the same for you anymore…I don’t love you anymore. Maybe I never did”

How can love which is based on emotion grow in this place, where so many people hide behind cartoonish caricatures of themselves, and oft hide behind the total opposite of who they truly are? Yet, many are surprised when they find themselves left alone on the shore, shivering and cold, and alone.

And it’s not just the newbie, who is susceptible to the lure of passion, romance and the illusion of true love, all too often foisted upon them by malicious avatars – predators seeking shallow masochistic fun, or interested in scamming lindens (not that I’m still bitter…at all); but there are also casualties among those of us more seasoned in this virtual world. Those who have guarded their hearts and resisted for so long the allure of a SL relationship in favor of finding joy in the technical mechanics, and creativity and non-emotional entertainment this world offers, can quickly discover what “feels” like true love, only to discover that it was nothing more than a daytrip to the beach for someone else, or even for themselves. Whether jumping into a relationship here naively or easing into one cautiously, eventually if it is love we seek, we all wind up as vulnerable and exposed as a day-one newbie. While the fallout of a real life divorce obviously has far greater consequences, if you dare to truly love someone in this second world, make no mistake, the emotional pain you put yourself at risk of experiencing will not be virtual.

Avatars have no feelings; but the people behind them do. To love another in this blended reality requires no less than becoming emotionally vulnerable to them, to show yourself and thereby become as exposed as you are in any real life relationship, with an increased likelihood of enjoying a picnic on the beach alongside the love of your second life in one moment, and the next, finding yourself alone with nothing but sand in your synthetic sandwich. Blecch!

Now, before you judge this writer a skeptic, let me confess to being a believer in true love, and to being a hopeless romantic by nature, and by choice. I am also “in” love with someone, both by nature and by choice – naturally attracted to her in almost every way imaginable, to her physical beauty, to her personality, her intellect, her creativity, and to the person I am when I am with her. I want to be a better man for her, not a better avatar…a better man. I love her with my feelings…yes – but I’ve also made a conscious decision to love her, and to willingly act in that way. I choose to stay in love her, whether the tide is high or low this day, it no longer matters.

Otis Redding wrote and recorded one of my favorite blues songs 3 days before his death in 1967. While many different interpretations of the lyric’s meanings exist, I think they fit in the context of this topic. In it he sings,

“Sittin’ in the mornin’ sun

I’ll be sittin’ here when evening comes,

Watching the ships roll in

And then I watch them roll out again…”

So, my love…I am here, sitting on the beach with you today, and I will be here for all the tomorrows to come. As long as you’ll have me, I promise not to allow any sand into your synthetic sandwich.

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 can be underwater without SCUBA gear,  and you can have sex with strange creatures that shouldn't be reproducing with humans.  But combine the video game looks with the Internet aspects and suddenly people take it as an excuse for being a dick or bitch. 

"Oh, I stole all your spacebucks?  Too bad its a game!" 

"Oh I said I would be your boyfriend and I'm having fake sex with aliens?  Its in my game rules." 

"I want to spend time with you, sure, right after  I am done spending time in Zindra gambling your spacebucks away." 

These are typical things that are said to me.  Especially by my dick ex-boyfriend Steve*. Jerk.

Now granted, there are aspects of SL that are games, role playing sims and actual video games like Dark Life.  And on role playing sims, you are expected to play a character.  But on those sims, if you 'role play a dick or bitch,' then you are treated like a dick or bitch AND they understand that you are playing a character.  People present know the difference between In-Character or Out Of Character. 

On the rest of the grid, if you are a dick or bitch, then expect to be treated like a dick or bitch because you are being a dick or a bitch.  Residents sometimes just use SL as a communications tool, a heavy resource using, laggy, picking up a phone would be quicker, communication tool.  And don't try to cop out by saying "its only a game! bawwwwww."  Man or Woman up and say "too fucking bad, bawwwww."  Just because you are on the Internet doesn't give you an excuse to be a dick or a bitch.  People are dicks and bitches in Real Life too, like my dick ex-boyfriend Darryl*.  Jerk. 

If you are going to do it, do it with respect and dignity and not hide behind "its only a game." 

*names changed to protect the Herald from DMCA wielding losers who couldn't litigate their way out of an open phone booth.

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 the face of such tartuffery. Neva is, in fact, the worst of an army of revanchist stooges in service of Linden hegemony.  

In the fairness that characterizes all communist deliberations throughout history, we have given the Linden lapdog Prokofy Neva many opportunities to join in the inevitable struggle to overthrow those who would crush us under their iron heels.

All for naught, comrades! So the hour to strike a blow for The People has come! In the service of all workers I journeyed, appropriately attired for deadly combat with the despot, to Neva’s Ravenglass sim. It is but one of many places of avatarian oppression where “renters” pay out to the bourgeois overlord or face swift banishment and virtual homelessness. 

Under the very nose of the running dog, a revolutionary cadre is laboring to free the local populace. Yet instead of an army marshalling, I found a most ingenious and subversive enterprise (all proceeds going back to fund The Revolution, of course): a large flock of Sion chickens. 

The proletarian poultry of Ravenglass have a dual mission: first, to lag the simulator until Neva is brought to his/her pampered knees with clotted rage. Second, our feathered Vanguard of Fake-World Socialism imbibes a constant supply of cannabis, in order to test my comrades’ theories about the ease of re-educating benighted proletarians under the influence. 

Not all birds are surviving this noble experiment. Their capitalist upbringings are clearly too deeply engrained. 

But some must perish in the cause of progress: No broken eggs? No omelet!

I soon had every stoned but living chicken marching with me as I sang (and they clucked) revolutionary songs against the bourgeoisie in general and Neva in particular.

Fear us, Neva and other oozing sores of Linden oppression!  You must reach the ineluctable conclusion that your days of tyranny are numbered. Our chickens are fearless, and they will reproduce — while you? HAH!  You cower before the cock-a-doodle-doo of Techno-Communist dialectical materialism!

We cackle at you as we appropriate the means of egg production and, led by our Pulletburo, strut like roosters into a shining future from beneath the yoke of wage slavery! Chickens of the fake world, unite!

A postscript to the curious reader: It is time that I explain why my method of discourse have been elevated beyond that of the coarse peasantry of Enoch Holler, my legendary home that, as Marx put it so brilliantly, exemplifies “the idiocy of rural life.” 

I have in my possession the “Commie-in-a Box Kit”, a miraculous device of progressive socialist engineering that transformed my brain and raised my consciousness instantly! 

Contact me in-world and, for the mere donation of 1000 Linden Dollars to the revolutionary cause, I will supply you with the means of freeing yourself of all capitalist thought.  Prices are reasonable…act now and I will provide a free AK-47! But wait, there’s more! The first 500 workers to reply will receive a complimentary Techno-Communist banner!

Sion chickens in Ravenglass join the fight for a glorious future

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 ordered, rationale way?  Without it, the flood of simultaneous information would be unmanageable and overwhelming for the construct of consciousness – ours anyway.  Where did time come from, and why is it here?

If time an infinite reality, always having been, always still to be, then it disqualifies the theory of the Big Bang; which necessitates a beginning to our universe, and to our reality; the start of time.  Who wound the clock?  

Conversely, if the universe always was, and always will be – infinite in existence as well as breadth – then why is everything winding down, decaying…burning out?  When did the “dying” begin?  A star burns itself out; and from its “burn rate” we can trace back its existence to its beginning.  We can see water poured out of a pitcher, and by observing the volume and speed of the water as it falls away, we can discern the time at which the water began to pour – we can measure back to its beginning.  So if the universe – and by extension time – always was, who started the countdown clock, and why?

Is there a difference between real and virtual time?  Have you ever said to yourself, “Wow, time is flying by.”  What does that mean to you?  Did your perception of the pace of events and occurrences change, was it altered by something?  Why do some days seem to drag on forever, and yet years seem to fly by at breakneck speed?  The passage of time – of water flowing out of the pitcher – should be constant, but it seems to ebb and flow.  

Some might argue that regardless of our perception, time is in fact passing at a constant unflinching steady pace.  I admit having difficulty wrapping my mind around the concept of time, much less being able to accept with any degree of certainty that its passage is constant.  My own perception of time’s passage seems to vary based on what is happening at that moment; and often, when I compare my perception its pace with family or friends, but for the clock on the wall, our perceptions of the pace of reality can be markedly different. “Reading this damn column is taking forever!”  “It’s only been 3 minutes.”

For example, when I “play” in SL, hours seem to compress into minutes.  I can find myself spending an entire afternoon exploring, meeting people, building, etc. in the Land of Lindens.  When I am on vacation, days fly by at speeds I cannot explain; but for the days immediately preceding my escape from the shackles of Blackberries and Franklin Planners, I can swear that I hear the ticking of my office wall clock slow to a virtual snail’s pace.  Hours seem to tangibly melt into an unreal slow motion reality when I am waiting for the doctor to call with the test results.  But an adagio day at my favorite beach; with each beautifully relaxing note seeming to waft through the measures of time, suddenly ends – de capo el fine, sans D.C.

The most wonderful, important and cherished moments of my life seem to be the ones that are blurred by the rapid passage of relentless time: the birth of my children and their infancy; my wedding day; that incredible family vacation we took 5 years ago that we all still talk about.  All of these events, now a fading memory, like the lingering optic shadow of a shooting star just witnessed, and now gone.

How then shall we think about time?  How shall we treat it and the ways in which we pass it; with ambivalence or profound respect?  How then shall we spend our time here in the real and virtual world?  

A philosopher by the name of Jim Croce once wrote:  

“If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day 'til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you.
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then
Again I would spend them with you.
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go thru time with.”

How then shall we spend our time here?  Think about it, before your time is up.

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 in Confessions of a Gorean Slave:

"Several people in SL have commented to me that they expect, at somepoint, to hear that someone has committed suicide overevents/relationships in SL, and they say that because it is theirfeelings that the Lindens appear oblivious to human cost ofentry/experience in SL. Think about it.".

While online worlds can be a source of diversion and delight, the weight players invest into the symbols and relationships they form are such that what starts as an escape may become something far stronger – and stranger.

A Virtual Life. An Actual Death is a must read cautionary tale for those who would immerse themselves in the virtual realm. A few excerpts:

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 people did not know that, it might change people's perceptions of me a little, but nothing fundamental. 

In the past, I was attacked for supposedly supporting the People's Republic of China.  In these attacks, it was suggested that I was the daughter of Chinese communist officials, which would also allege that I was Han Chinese in RL with a blonde European avatar.  A very different change in race, but no one was lining the streets calling for my head because my race didn't match my avatar.

But suggest that I am a man in real life and everything changes. 

And I have been accused on a number of occasions, as have other women on-line as a way of intimidation in one form or another.  People will try to silence you if they intimate that you are a man in real life.  People have had a problem with my writing about Gor on the Herald and have gone to my editor and myself banging on the table if I am a man in real life, simply because there must not be any women on Gor. 

Typically when I am asked this question, I say pass for a number of reasons, not the least of which is because I have said I was a female before and I got stalked.  Another is because I believe men and women should have the opportunity to live in the shoes of the other gender which they would otherwise not be able to do.   If you believe the person on the other side of the screen is a man or a woman, then you would treat that person as a man or a woman. Once you know otherwise, it is sometimes an effort to keep that illusion going; its still there in your head that the person you are talking to is not the same as what is on your screen.  I once worked with in the clubs do that with me; try to be friends both as a man and a woman, and it was an effort, not much of one, but an effort to treat one as a boy and the other a girl. 

And in those same clubs, I had another co-worker that hurriedly told me on stage that she was a man in RL and it bothered me because it felt that there was something wrong with being a woman that he had to assuage his ego to tell me that he was a man.   To me, having a female or male avatar say right out, I'm not the same in RL, feels like a cop out; like you don't want the experience of knowing what its like to walk in someone else's shoes, at least not completely.  Which is why I am very big on, I would rather not know.  Unless we are sharing what happens in real life, I would rather not have the tables switched on me.

The reason why I am bringing it up now is that people are suggesting gender verification is just another level of trust in an on-line virtual world, which it is not.  Because of the above, a person who lies about their gender might be lying because they want to experience life as the opposite gender and if someone directly asks them, their only options are to tell the truth and stop the experience, lie about it or not answer, which is why I don't answer so that passing on the question will be common again. 

In all this talk about verification being voluntary, the fact is that if you do not gender verify, it will be known to others, because the space will be blank or it will say "not verified."  And we are presuming when someone says gender verified, that mean that the gender matches.  So the system will have to place a label on the screen saying if the person is male or female, which is the only way a verification system would work.  I could be "gender verified " but then switch genders between avatars on the same account if I had an androgynous name. 

But this skips over the real reason people on-line ask for your gender.  The reason why people ask for gender on-line is for advertising dollars.  Just go to a social networking website of a friend of the opposite gender and see their ads in relation to your ads.  When the Lindens publish how many women use Second Life, they aren't saying look how egalitarian we are, they are saying look how many women in this age group are using our product so you can advertise on here.  When I signed up for MySpace and ticked off the female box, it asks me if I want to sell my eggs.  Men don't have that ad. 

For many people, SL is SL, RL is RL.  The only way the immersion works is if people accept and buy into the illusion.  As a community, in order to allow for the experience, we must let our eyes focus on the screen and not what is beyond. 

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 for those considering cybersex. 

Is the person who you are cybersexing the person you thinkthey are?  Are you sure? Really?

You might think s/he's dreamy, but s/he could bereally ugly, a different religion, too old, too young, the wrong race, species, or even a Tory. Despite these frightful possibilities, many people are even more concerned with the gender of the typist behind the avatar, worrying that if the person onthe other side of the screen is not the same gender as presented it makes you something else – either forcedhomosexuality if the typist matches your gender or forcedheterosexuality if the person behind the avatar does not. Horrors!

Of course, this is one ofthose issues that being bisexual solves – but perhaps are not bi — now what?

Take a deep breath and think. For the personconcerned, how does any of this change things?  Just because the Master youthink is sexy turns out to be a woman, it doesn't make you lesbian. Women real-life typists role-playing Gorean mastershas happened more frequently on Gor than the other way around.  Take a deep breath and remember youwere attracted to the image of a man on your screen.  Thata woman was writing his lines doesn't magically change who you are attracted to.  This also appliesif you are attracted to someone who you think is a woman, but turns outto be a man — it doesn't make you less gay and magically straightbecause the person you thought you were in love with was a man.

Ihave heard comedians joke about how if they were a female escort andtheir client was a woman running the male avatar, that's the onlyheterosexual sex that they have. 

The important point is that for each participant, the sexualexperience is different.  If the man on the other side immerses himselfas a woman, then when he has cybersex with a man, its not gay sex, itsheterosexual sex, a woman having sex with a man.  That immersed woman,when having sex with a woman, doesn't make it straight, it makes itlesbian. 

Of course, if the man on the other side of the screen is justmanipulating the woman to have sex, then he isn't gay, he's a pornwriter/animator — if a man was gay in RL and wanted to havesex with men on SL, he would have sex with men on SL as a man. 

This simpleconcept is largely ignored due to the scare of finding outthat your girlfriend is really a guy and that might make you gay –except it doesn't.  There would be feelings of betrayal andhurt, but in the end, that person who you had cybersex with is areal as anything else on the Internet.  Just because they might notmatch your gender expectations doesn't change you or your identity.

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 will keep you endlessly pounding your keyboard.

In this interview, Socrates Cafe owner Parrot Ferrer, tells us not only how Socrates Cafe got started but reveals other “alternative” plans for the future. Besides his art gallery, an event area covering Open Space Technology will be rising soon.

Alessandra Narayan (AN) – You have a quite suggestive name. Are you half human half parrot?
Parrot Ferrer (PF) – Yeah! I used to raise and show parrots in RL for a hobby, sold nationally and when I came in-world I saw furries but no birds. So I searched and found Grendal’s children. Got the Parrot AV.

AN – What about Socrates Cafe? A drop in SL's ocean?
PF – One of my first mentors was Verum Vicirca, she and I started Socrates Café two years ago. It was originally centered to be a writers discussion area but folks veered to more current events and reasonings/debate. Verum ended up departing SL due to medical reasons and she gave all the properties for 1$L.

AN – What about these two last years?
PF – It has been a great event. Most of my friends I meet have, met them through here, running the event twice a week Tuesdays and Thursdays 8 PM SLT, usually almost full.

AN – Do you think SL needs more original spaces like this one?
PF – I believe anytime we can engage in “authentic dialogue” then we, as people, get a greater sense of ourselves and of the world.

AN – How do you support tiers for land?
PF – I pay them. It’s my fun money. This land area is 3072sqm.

AN – What can you tell me about the art gallery?
PF – Well I got a new RL job and to keep my mind creative for that (day job) I started making stuff to keep mind creative. Had to put it somewhere so I built the gallery.

AN – Does it have many visitors?
PF – I don't track numbers but it has its share. I sell a good bit of stuff but that selling is an afterthought. Like Socrates Cafe the biggest value is that it enhances the community good and culture.

AN – Do you have more projects?
PF – I did my Masters research on Open Space Technology and am making an event area for that endeavor.