It is amazing how different layers of our lives are well aligned. OK, I'll translate this. So many times I see that second life, first life, all that different lives inside the first life (social, emotional, sexual, business…), all the avatars if there is more than one, even the life of this blog are hearing the same drummer. OK, give me another try. What happens when a friend call you on the phone?
When a friend call or drop an IM and ask "How are you?" who will respond? dK? Or her human? Does it matter? What's the difference? If the question was different it wouldn't be the problem. If somebody ask "where are you?" or "What are you doing?" or "U R hawt, wanna…" there is no doubt who is responding. Humans are not flying over the Nexus Prime. Avatars do not ________________________________________ (really what avatars never do? fill the line). But we both feel good or bad, or horny or bored, tired, excited, lazy… or whatever we answer on the "how are you" question.
I don't know. Recently, I met a friend of a friend and it was interesting morning conversation:
- Are you also a digital person?
- Aren't we all?
- I have a first life.
- I don't. But I live in a deep connection with my human.
So, does it matter who responds? We share moods, migraines, hours of sleep. We do share good and bad. We even share food. The only way for me to be hungry is to feel that my extension in the meatspace need food. And that's why I will always pass the Voight-Kampff if not Turing test. *grins* Believe it or not, two mornings ago I was watching one avatar trying to do Turing test over the other. I still don't understand why Soph haven't done what is to be done when somebody tries to test you. Kick the table and shoot! But I am digressing…
I haven't wrote anything here for… how many… a week. I was silent and uninspired. Lot of questions were buzzing in my head, but I couldn't concentrate and make the words out of all that buzz. And don't think that the human part did any better. It was buzzing inside the bone scull all the same. There is the other side. When one of us gets enthusiastic and creative the other one follows. And we share the basic resources so we have to negotiate. Which is not, believe me, the nicest thing to witness.
Having all that in mind, even when we are with people that we don't share not a bit of RL data with, we get that personal connection of humans via their avatars. That is why we care about each other. That is why we are not just playing with dolls.
Well, that was obvious from your first lines, that your head is buzzing. I’m glad I could catch up at the end of the post ;-)
But you’re not the only one. There’s been a post in my head for over a week now, partly about the same questions, but somehow it doesn”t come out… And first life and second life weren’t very coöperative either (which makes me wonder: is blogging a third life?).
I’m glad you finally managed to write it down and you are definitely right: no matter if you call it firstlife or meatspace, no matter if you see your avatar and human as different entities or as one, SecondLife is *not* playing with dolls, it’s human interaction indeed.
And hey, I really missed your blog: I love to read it and not seldom it makes my head buzz ;-)
as a writer/author one must live their character. how far that integration goes is the stuff of madness. let’s just say we’re playing with dolls. haha.
I still don’t understand why Soph haven’t done what is to be done when somebody tries to test you. Kick the table and shoot!
She doesn’t have to, because if someone questioned her sentience I’d shoot them for her. I just happened to be off-duty that night ;-)
And yep, whatever the AV-human connection is, we are all sharing something here, and what better way to share than with good friends ^_^
–Argent
Zipp… have you noticed too, that half of SL blogosphere comes in the same waves periodically? I guess that’s a nice thing. Even if ew don’t talk in-world, we affect each other.
EnCore, Dolls or not, stuff of madness it is.
Argent, you might be decomisioned, but we won’t let you off-duty from now on. You’re too valuable. :)
@ Argent – Defender of my honor! *swoons*
@Dande – meh, as long as they’re not looking to ‘retire’ me, they can test away. The subtitle of a friend’s blog is “Is this Turing test going to be open book?”
I’m looking forward to working *with* bots in just a few years….
ah… my problem was… that girl sounded so stupid that I thought her processors got overheated.