Posts Under SL Philosophy Category
Tackling the Self
In my country, there is still bullfighting. Unlike our neighbours in Spain, bulls are not chased to death; even though there are some similarities, and obviously some things were clearly inspired, there is one thing that is quite different: at some point during the fight, a group of a few forcados will tackle the bull, head on, without any weapons except for their arms and hands — and the skill. Now picture…
Self-entertainment and the end of newbies
Sometimes, discussions after the Thinkers meetings prove to be even more interesting than the meeting itself (sorry, Extie! ) — mostly because the group tends to become very small and we can throw around a few wild ideas to see if they stick One of those is something that has bothered me for several years. You might remember that one of the major strategies for M Linden was how to…
On the multi-cultural environment of Second Life
I wrote a short article on meta-culture and the multi-cultural environment in SL for a new blog/magazine for Portuguese speakers called “Convergences Magazine”. It’s an intriguing project by Gper Aeon and Gabriela Pinelli, mixing art, culture, and philosophy about and around Second Life. If you’re fine in reading Portuguese, or don’t mind the awkward translations provided by Google Translate, you’re welcome to take a peek at it If there is…
ALT! Who goes there? – Part 5 – An essay by Extropia DaSilva
Now Extropia DaSilva has her own blog! This essay is republished with kind permission of Extie — Gwyn Remember that moment in ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, when the bears are heading for home while Goldilocks is sleeping in baby bear’s bed? Small children find her behaviour rather strange, and an experiment involving a tube of sweets can help explain why. In this experiment, a child is offered a tube…
Transcendence through Second Life
While I’m burning eyelashes on my other computer, swallowed by much-delayed work, I came up with the idea of writing about a topic which you will find, well, unusual. If it makes you smile and laugh, I’ll be happy If it makes you think a bit, because in my usually light tone, I touched something quite profound, well, I’ll be even more happier, of course. Around mid-2004, when I first…
ALT! Who Goes There? – Part 4 – by Extropia DaSilva
THINGS WE THINK WITH. Try this exercise. Stop reading for a minute and take a look at the objects around you. Think about how they influence your life and your thinking. In the previous essay, we concentrated mostly on how other people play a part in shaping one’s developing personality. But humans are not just social animals, they are also prolific toolmakers. The cultural artefacts we have created enter into…
ALT! Who Goes There? Part Three by Extropia DaSilva
In the previous essay, we saw how philosophy embarked on a failed quest to find the core self. Something else that has occupied philosophers’ minds through the ages is the nature of reality. What is it, in and of itself? Are we in a position to know? In concepts and thought experiments like ‘the veil of Maya’, ‘Plato’s Cave’, ‘Descartes’ evil deceiver’ and ‘Nozik’s Experience Machine’, we are invited to…
Being in Shape
No, this is truly not about how to take your avatar out to a gym and work it out Fortunately, in Second Life, getting a trim and fit shape is just… one click away. It is also not a resource to help you out among the millions of shapes out there to find the one that looks the nicest. However, it’s related to both — and to three other things…
Alt! Who Goes There? (Part 2) An Essay by Extropia DaSilva
TWO: THE BIRTH OF THE SOUL AND THE DEATH OF THE SELF. In philosophy, investigations into the nature of self-consciousness can be divided into two main theories. ‘Theories of self’ attempt to determine what kind of thing the self is, or attempt to show that it is not a ‘thing’ at all. ‘Theories of personal identity’ are primarily concerned with personal identity over time. In other words, they set out…
Alt! Who Goes There? An Essay by Extropia DaSilva
ONE: DOLLS AND ACTIVES. In ‘Virals And Definitives In SL’ and other essays, I discussed the concept of the ‘Pairson’: A character in an online world that is controlled by two or more people in RL. This lead to various questions, not least of which was ‘to what extent does the character remain the same, if the person behind it has changed’? A more common challenge to personal identity is…
Fake Avatars and the Duplicates Paradox: An Essay by Extropia DaSilva
In ‘A Tale Of Two Avatars’, Wagner James Au reports on the discovery that there are two ‘Hamlet Aus’ on the social networking site ‘Avatars United’. Like many things to do with life on the screen, a superficial consideration of this discovery leads to a clear-cut and simple conclusion: There is the real Hamlet Au, and then there is a fake Hamlet Au. However, again like so many things to…
Obsessive about Real Identity?
I had started to write this in mid-October but never finished it… and the database crashed at some point while I was in the middle of writing it, losing almost all of the article In the mean time, the recent interest in this topic, as well as M Linden’s announcement that they would allow people to register avatars with their real life names, as well as Wallace Linden’s strange article…
Digital People and Anonymous Avatars by Extropia DaSilva
This time, we get a short essay from Extropia DaSilva… but one that is quite close to my heart Enjoy! — Gwyn “Trussssst in me/ Jusssst in me”- Ka from Disney’s ‘Jungle Book’. When H+ Magazine published Stephen Cobb’s article ‘Real Discrimination Against Digital People’, someone wrote the following response: ‘I fully respect online personas, but expecting me to implicitly trust anonymous avatars is pushing it’. Many people seem to…
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