3 Comments
ever been lost in space? been kinda that way myself lately. world weariness? virtual burnout? data overload? can’t suss it out yet, but I just keep on chuggin; figger I’ll get there eventually.
Life, of course, is never simple; but it is also true that we make things much more complicated than they need be. Common sense as practiced by someone possessed of self-knowledge is often more profound than the most abstruse philosophical theory, and in its purest form it could even be considered a form of “enlightenment”; for who could be more enlightened than someone who sees things as they really are, with no interference from a self-protective mind? When we have nothing to gain and nothing to lose, reality suddenly becomes much less threatening.
Excuse me, but it does get warm in here from time to time… so warm, in fact, that I had to go out and buy a cooling pad for my laptop. The point is, avatars are people too, and have the same needs, drives and desires that you and I have; but in some ways it feels more like humanity in overdrive, given the perfect bodies, the choice of identities, gender – and, of course, complete anonymity if you choose to remain silent. As a result, the technology gets warmer and warmer – sometimes to the point of overheating.
Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive!
- Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- Shakespeare, A Midsummer Nights Dream Act 3, scene 2
It can be said with some certainty that the tangled webs once woven by mere mortals have grown even more complex in the age of the emortal. What was once only possible within the confines of a town or village, and with one’s human counterparts, can now occur on a global scale encompassing not only multiple worlds, but multiple beings with often indefinable identities. Here, the identities of those involved in this “love quadrangle” all happen to be the same person!! How’s that for a tangled web?
The last bit of news I’ve heard about this situation was that all parties were seen sitting around a box of kleenex in a pleasantly decorated office somewhere in Second Life, with a baffled therapist attempting to mediate some sort of solution between the real and the virtual. It wasn’t pretty. I wish them all well, though; they’re all good people. Of course, some might say I have a biased opinion, since I’ve been intimately involved with each of them for quite some time…. wait…. wait.. that didn’t sound right… I mean… ahh, what the hell; let’s just say it’s complicated, huh?
I have a feeling that this story doesn’t end here, though; here’s hoping that all of these complications are sorted out eventually, preferably on these pages. Wonder who gets the skybox….
└ Tags: Avatars, Beauty, Chrome, Humor, Identity, Juliette, Love, mojozone, Ocean, Philosophy, Relationships, Romance, Second Life, Vanilla, Virtual Worlds