Another essay by the untiring Extropia for your pleasure! Enjoy — Gwyn When two digital people meet for a chat in Second Life ®, there are at least six people involved in the conversation. To help explain the reasoning behind that statement, I shall introduce a hypothetical digital person, […]
Extropia DaSilva
Something for you to read during the holiday season from Extropia DaSilva, who has probably written her best and most thought-provoking essay so far: one that even explains immortality and how we can achieve it! — Gwyn ‘I’m gonna live forever!’ — Theme Tune to ‘Fame!’. INTRODUCTION People who make a living […]
INTRODUCTION. Question. What connects Alan Watts, Richard Dawkins and Henrik Bennetsen? The answer is, they have all written about the human need to make distinctions and separate things into classes. In ‘The Two Hands Of God’, Watts wrote, ‘from the standpoint of thought, the all-important question is ever, “is it […]
‘Pierre goes cross-eyed, trying to understand the implications of the slug’s cosmology’ -Charles Stross. In the discussion concerning science fiction, we saw how such stories can occasionally predict the future. However, like most forecasts they are rarely completely accurate. Jules Verne anticipated submarine warfare- but against wooden vessels rather than […]
Part 2 of this essay published here with the permission of Extropia DaSilva. — Gwyn “My God, it’s full of stars!” – Arthur C. Clarke. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM WITH SCIENCE FICTION. Do these quotes remind you of anything? ‘There were seven girls waiting there, all floating just off the tatami. […]
Editor’s note: Once more, Extropia DaSilva has finished another of her mind-provoking essays, and it’s time to give her the floor! — Gwyn “Listen: there’s a hell of a good universe next door. Let’s go”-E.E Cummings. INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS ‘NORMAL’ ANYWAY? In online worlds the everyday concerns that define real […]
It’s time to give voice to Extropia DaSilva again — and she’s back with an earlier topic, which she has expanded quite neatly on this latest essay of hers. Enjoy! — Gwyn IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID. The ability to replicate the means of production themselves from cheaply available elements is […]
Extropia DaSilva is back with another one of her fantastic essays. Enjoy! — Gwyn In part one of this essay, we examined that most infamous of dystopian nanotech outcomes, the ‘grey goo’ of self-replicating machines. In this second part the view shall be widened as we examine how molecular manufacturing […]
The Mind Child is back with another essay 🙂 Enjoy — Gwyn Does the name Mitch Kapor sound familiar? If you are interested in the history of SL, the answer may well be yes, because he was one if LL’s earliest investors. “Mitch Kapor was the only person who got […]
PART ONE: SL AND THE GRAY GOO PROBLEM. When Second Life launched in May 2003, it attracted a citizenship not unlike the Internet’s Usenet group of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Toward the end of 2006, a software tool known as Copybot went on sale, and for a brief […]
AN ESSAY BY EXTROPIA DaSILVA. Extropia’s back with more delightful reading — Gwyn It is a fair bet that any company releasing a 3D social space to be inhabited by customisable avatars, who shop for virtual furniture with which to furnish their similarly virtual houses is going to find itself […]
Extropia DaSilva is back with another essay, and this time, she’ll be “going quantic” on Second Life. Explaining complex science using Second Life as an example, she’ll take you through a voyage through time and space, making you realise that “common sense” and “quantum mechanics” cannot be employed in the […]
Once more, I welcome Extropia DaSilva’s insight and her most excellent newest essay, that she so kindly allows me to reprint here. Enjoy her fascinating thoughts 🙂 – Gwyn It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that the pace of technological change is quickening. One of the surest signs of this […]