Finding Sophrosyne

Sophrosyne's Salons: Two This Week!

2008-05-12T20:13:40Z

As part of the busiest week of events in Extropia's history, we're holding a special Sophrosyne's Salon at 10 am SLT Thursday morning, in the Central Nexus in Extropia Core.

Our Salon Spotlight Guest will be Tom Bukowski (Tom Boellstorff). Tom is the author of the newly-released book, Coming of Age in Second Life.

Tom is Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Irvine and Editor in Chief of American Anthropologist. He hosted the recent atomic-world conference "Cultures of Virtual Worlds," and has been an embedded anthropologist in Second Life since 2004. His new book is an anthropological study of Second Life's cultures and subcultures. It's challenging, provocative, engaging, and offers much to everyone, casual reader, SL Resident and social scientist alike.

Tom is a delightful, engaging, insightful speaker, and we're delighted to welcome him to Extropia!

Our regular Saturday Salon will feature another very special guest, Universa Vanalten (Erika Vick) of NASA Headquarters. Universa is the coordinator of NASA's extensive activities in Second Life, and will be discussing the space agency's use of virtual technologies for outreach, education, research and exploration.

Fresh from the coming NASA Future Forum this week in Extropia and other SL venues, Universa will set out the future of NASA's virtuality efforts, and share some exciting movies and slides of present and future space endeavors!

Saturday, May 17, 1-2:30 pm, Central Nexus at Extropia Core.

Meanwhile, last week's Salon has been described by many as the best yet - which is saying a lot! Ben Duranske, of the virtual worlds legal blog Virtually Blind and author of the new book Virtual Law, joined us for a terrific discussion of legal issues facing residents and merchants in virtual worlds.

Ben has a rare gift for explaining complex matters in an engaging, entertaining and enlightening way, and we were all (33 peak concurrency) treated to a marvelous discussion!

Thanks, Ben, and we hope to have you back in Extropia again!

NASA Future Forum: RL/SL Event: May 14, 8:30-5pm SLT

2008-05-05T23:37:02Z

You're invited to join NASA leadership, astronauts, scientists, and engineers along with local business, technology and academic leaders and local, state and federal officials discuss the role of space exploration in advancing science, engineering, technology, education and the economy that benefits your community and the nation.

The program features an exciting preview of NASA’s Constellation Program – America’s return to the Moon and beyond.

http://www.nasa.gov/50th/future_forums/sanJoseWithGallery.html

NASA's Future Forum will be held RL at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA (http://www.thetech.org/) and attendance is by invitation only.

HOWEVER...for the first time ever you can participate in Second Life! If you have not already done so, please join the Welcome to NASA group in SL to participate via group chat and to receive future notices about this event.

We are identifying a number of locations where the event will be streamed into SL and where NASA volunteers will be present to assist.

Please contact Universa Vanalten by IM inworld if you are interested in hosting this event on your sim or if you are interested in related volunteer opportunities.

The keynote address given by NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale (SL Xena Dahl) will be broadcast live on NASA TV.

You can also view agendas and keynote addresses given at Future Forums held earlier this year in Seattle WA, Columbus OH, St. Louis MO, and Miami FL at http://www.nasa.gov/50th/future_forums/index.html.

Events will be hosted at Explorer Island, NASA CoLab, the International Spaceflight Museum, and in Extropia Core.

Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon: Virtual Law

2008-05-05T17:12:07Z

Join us this Saturday, May 10 from 1-2:30 pm SLT in the Central Nexus at Extropia Core for Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon! This week, our Salon Spotlight Guest is Benjamin Duranske (Benjamin Noble), author of the authoritative legal blog Virtually Blind and the new book from the American Bar Association Press, Virtual Law: Navigating the Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds.

Ben is a terrific writer, who makes difficult subjects accessible and interesting. I'd been daunted by a 450-page law book with such topics at "Further Identification of Documents in Virtual Worlds," but it's a smooth, engrossing and enlightening read, and well worth the troubles of navigating the ABA's online store to obtain a copy. If you're doing business in a virtual world, or concerned about your personal rights, this book is an excellent investment.

Ben will be discussing his book as well as a number of controversial legal issues confronting residents and business people in virtual worlds, so if you have questions about the rules and forces increasingly shaping virtual worlds, come on down - this promises to be one of our best sessions ever!

(While we may well use our half hour of scheduled overtime and run till 3pm, if Ben has the energy, I will be leaving promptly to attend the conference in World of Warcraft!)

Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon: Hamlet Au

2008-04-20T02:56:23Z

Hamlet Au, New World Notes blogger, former Linden and author of the outstanding new book The Making of Second Life (seriously - it's maybe the very best book on synthetic worlds out there - it's smart, gripping, sensitive and insightful - go buy a copy!), was our Salon Spotlight Guest today.

We had a terrific crowd - a peak concurrency of 42 - but the Salon room looked strangely empty after seeing 84 people in there last week!

Hamlet dealt well with the outspoken Salon crowd, told some great stories, shared his insights on the Lindens, the state of the industry and the future of synthetic worlds, and stayed into overtime to chat with all of us.

The transcript is available here.

No Salon next week! I'll be gone all week. Back in two with a second try for JoJa Dhara on Virtual Holland, which we had to cancel a few weeks back due to logins being shut off...

photo by Boc Cryotank (Stephen Euin Cobb)

Academic Conference in WoW

2008-04-19T18:47:39Z

This was just passed on to me, in conjunction with an exciting new event we're developing for Extropia.

I never imagined myself in WoW, but for this, I'll get an av set up right away!

Convergence of the Real and the Virtual: The First Scientific Conference in World of Warcraft

This is a formal invitation to participate in a scientific conference held inside World of Warcraft, May 9-11, 2008, devoted to research on WoW and on virtual worlds in general. Please share it with interested colleagues and students.

The idea was proposed by John Bohannon, who creates the "Gonzo Scientist" feature for the AAAS journal Science (

http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/gonzoscientist/). You may be aware that Science published an article I wrote about scientific research opportunities in virtual worlds, focusing on WoW and Second Life, and a picture of the Stormwind auction house appeared on the cover of the July 27, 2007, issue. John says that the editors of Science are very excited about this conference - "going bananas" was his exact terminology. I believe we can actually accomplish some serious intellectual progress, while having a lot of fun!

There will be three academic sessions:

1. Research in World of Warcraft.

2. Relationships between WoW and the "Real World."

3. The Future of Virtual Worlds.

We anticipate writing a serious multiple-author report, comparable to a review essay or projection of future trends, expanded from the chatlog of this conference. John Bohannon plans to cover the conference for his Gonzo Scientist feature in Science.

We will announce a number of pre-conference events, and there will be three major field trips, each following one of the formal sessions:

1. A hike from Orgrimmar to Thunder Bluff, stopping half way at the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior, and at a number of other historic sites.

2. An excursion to Grom'gol Base Camp and Booty Bay in Stranglethorn Vale, beginning at Undercity.

3. An attack on an (undisclosed) Alliance location.

Participants will be represented by Horde characters on the Earthen Ring US server. We will do our best to accommodate participants having low-level characters. While it will be possible to attend at level 1, level 5 or even 10 will be more comfortable and fun. So long as the numbers of participants remain manageable, we will provide each new character with some gold, carrying bags, and souvenir clothing.

To attend, you should immediately get a Horde character onto Earthen Ring US - which is a different server from the European one named Earthen Ring! You could create a new Horde character, or port one over from another US server (at a cost of $25, but there are no other "travel" costs for this conference!). In either case, we suggest you prepare your characters right away, to make sure you can do it and become familiar with the environment. It is possible that publicity about this meeting will fill up the Earthen Ring US server, which already is one of the most active realms. So, it is crucial to get your character there right away.

European participants may need to do what some have already done, obtain the North American version of WoW from the US, including the discs, install it on a computer that does not already have the European version of Wow, and open a US account. Of course, North American participants who do not already have WoW will need to do the same thing. For my own research, I have long run two accounts from separate computers with the same credit card and home address, so this is not unusual.

We have set up a guild for participants to join, named Science, and the beginnings of a website and wiki, which will be expanded significantly over the following days:

http://mysite.verizon.net/wsbainbridge/convergence.htm http://convergentsystems.pbwiki.com/

I do hope you will be able to join us! Lok-tar!

Best wishes, Bill Bainbridge

++++++++++++++++++++

William Sims Bainbridge, Ph.D.

Human-Centered Computing

National Science Foundation*

703-292-7470

*Although this conference is not officially sponsored by the National Science Foundation, my involvement is an extension of my NSF duties, as part of my research and development plan.

SILENCE = DEATH

2008-04-16T18:37:09Z

Many dear friends have chosen not to blog this week, striking in protest against Linden Lab's foolish and overreaching brand-protection policies. I've given quite a bit of thought to the issue over the past few days: it would be easy enough to join them by default: I don't have the time to blog this week anyway. Friendship and laziness could reinforce each other; easy enough to stay away.

But I can't do that. I'm taking the time to post, to cross the virtual picket line, for a principle that I think is of overwhelming importance.

Silence is *always* complicity in oppression. The one obligation of the dissident, the sole moral response in the face of oppression, is to SPEAK OUT. To never relent, to never be silent, to never allow the oppressor a single moment's peace, to make the case for freedom and justice to anyone who can listen, at any time, anywhere Passivity enables oppression.

Seeing a wrong and refusing to speak out is not a tactic, it's a moral failing - and one I've been guilty of, in focusing on building something positive in Extropia to the complete exclusion of criticizing Linden Lab's increasing demonstrations of contempt for its Residents.

A generation of AIDS activists pioneered the slogan, SILENCE = DEATH. Imagine if their response to official discrimination, to neglect by researchers and pharmaceutical companies, had been to *remain silent* until the world changed around them!

The rationale behind the blog strike seems to be that blogging about Second Life (no, I'm not conforming to Linden Lab's demands that I forgo nominative fair use. Let them come after me if they want) legitimizes or promotes Linden Lab's actions in some way.

Let's have a little realism about the nature of power, please? The commercial blogs - New World Notes, Massively and their ilk - aren't striking. The rest of them - fashionistas, SLebrities, microbusiness promotional blogs and personal journals - don't contribute any measurable amount to Linden Lab's revenues or to its ever more tattered reputation.

Linden Lab has been overreaching, deaf to its customers at best and actively hostile to them (Robin Linden and identity "trust," anyone?). They deserve to be called out, to be pressed to change. Second Life Residents and users should be informed of Linden Lab's actions and encouraged to take action. Our grievances are legitimate, and we should do something about them.

Like what?

Education and outreach. The bloggers who've chosen to remain silent this week have done a wonderful job until now. I've learned a tremendous amount from Gwyneth Llewellyn and Kit Meredith about my rights, and how Linden Lab's actions have threatened them. Those of us without the knowledge base and skills to analyze the situation in the first instance can spread the word - speak out, link, post a supportive comment.

Collective action, not collective incation. Organize and join in mass attendance at Linden's office hours. Organize educational events, speakers, and mass protests inworld, where they can be seen, and where our numbers can be counted.

Escalation. The frontline Lindens are deaf, inept, destructive? Write and petition the Board of Directors individually. Write to Linden Lab's investors, explaining how Linden Lab's actions are damaging the value of their investment. Call out Mitch Kapor inworld and at atomic world events. Hold him accountable for corporate actions.

Cashing out. If you're upset enough - and I confess I'm not - cash out. Dump your Premium account, the three or four of you who still have one. Dump your landholdings. Stay out of the world. Make an impact that shows up on the concurrency and economic statistics. Linden Lab is using economic and legal tools against you? Use them back.

Okay, big talk for someone who hasn't stood up against Linden Lab's actions in months. It's easy to complain from the cheap seats, something I've seriously not appreciated when it's been directed at me. Do I have money to put where my mouth is (and if that isn't one of the more disgusting images in English figures of speech, I don't know what is)?

Here's what I've got.

Once a week, here, or where this blog may end up moving to, I'm going to post a "for dummies" analysis of Linden Lab's problematic policies - and give them credit for whatever they may get right. I'll link to all the first-line smart commentary and analysis I'll be drawing from - and hopefully our intellectual leaders will come off strike and supply me with some material to work from!

I'm going to offer Extropia's facilities: an expanded set of conference rooms, lecture halls, media displays and our mighty marketing engine, for an Anti Silence Day.

You striking bloggers: I'll give you a stage and an audience.
You Lindens: I'll issue you an invitation to show up and explain yourselves - or *you* can stand silent and ineffectual while *we* take control of the message.
You concerned Residents: I'll give you a chance to show up, be counted, get informed, and get inspired.
You veteran activists: I'll call on you to teach us, lead us, politicize and empower us. Show us how to be effective agents for change. Give us the tools that have been proven to work in worlds like ours.

I'm not an intellectual analyst, not a veteran activist, not an influential heavyweight. I'm a pretty good marketer and events organizer with a blog. Those of you who *are* leaders - there's my contribution.

Will you take me up on it, put it to use, and ACT UP?

Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon: David Brin

2008-04-14T02:59:59Z

David Brin's appearance as Salon Spotlight Guest was the centerpiece of Yuri's Night celebrations in Extropia. Dr. Brin packed them in: we had a peak concurrency of 84, and stayed right around 80 for most of his two-hour appearance. Thankfully, sim stability was excellent, considering the circumstances.

It was certainly an unusual event! We got off to a ragged start, with many of the audience trying to talk at once - which works fine for backchat at events like Metanomics, where the speaker is in the Voice channel, but which completely overwhelmed our guest, who was in text chat, struggling with the interface and the speed of threaded conversations.

After our shakedown, Dr. Brin got into the spirit of the thing in fine form, challenging us to look critically at internet-based communications tools, including those we were using, and led us in a rough-and-tumble exchange that left us all thinking, and hungry for more.

Many thanks to Dr. Brin for his time and engagement with us, and our thanks to Zeroe Auer, who created Dr. Brin's photorealistic skin, and Zada Zenovka, who built his shape. He was looking fine!

Next week: Hamlet Au (Wagner James Au), founder of the influential blog "New World Notes," and author of the terrific new book, The Making of Second Life.

Photos by Boc Cryotank (Stephen Euin Cobb)

Salon Photos

2008-04-08T06:53:47Z

Special thanks to Boc Cryotank (Stephen Euin Cobb) for the photos- Boc's got an eye for the ladies, doesn't he? :D

We cancelled the regular Saturday Salon due to SL's long downtime: logins started working right at 1, when the Salon was scheduled to start, and a lot of people hadn't gotten the word. Plus, our Spotlight Guest, JoJa Dhara, had been sick anyway - we decided to let her rest, and to sav her visit for a time when she's healthy and we can get a full crowd.

The afternoon turned into an impromptu party, as a good dozen people showed up anyway, and kibitzed while Vidal expanded the seating in the Salon room, in preparation for SF Writer (Robert J. Sawyer)'s visit on Sunday:

And, photos of the Salon itself the following day:

Sophrosyne's SUNDAY Salon: Robert J. Sawyer!

2008-04-07T04:31:59Z

What an incredible event!

SF Writer (Robert J. Sawyer) was so kind as to join us for nearly three hours of intense conversation today! We drew a decent crowd for our unusual timeslot, 33 people, all of whom were talking at once at some points! The crowd enthusiasm was great, and SF jumped right in for a spirited discussion of transhumanism and its discontents. Religion, elitism, uploading, the singularity, American and Canadian cultural differences - we hit it all in a cheerful and vigorous discussion.

A full transcript is available here.

After the Salon, SF stayed to join the Extropia Book Club for a discussion of his Hugo Award-nominated novel Rollback. We had if anything an even better time in this small venue. It was the treat of a lifetime for many of us to sit and chat with such a gifted novelist. It was hard to let him go, and we kept him till the point of exhaustion, I'm afraid.

SF is adorable, generous, terrifically funny, and just a natural fit in Extropia.

While we wish all the other excellent nominees well, if Rollback wins the Hugo at the World Science Fiction Convention this August, we hope SF will come back for the absolute blowout party we'll throw in his honor!

Very special thanks to Boc Cryotank (Stephen Euin Cobb, of the podcast The Future and You) for all his work in arranging SF's visit!

Yuri's Night Updates

2008-04-05T19:44:18Z

DJ Nicki Petrichor anchors Extropia's Space Party!

We're still finalizing the DJ lineup for Yuri's Night, but our all-day party will be anchored by Extropia's good friend, DJ Nicki Petrichor! Nicki was on the decks for Extropia's Grand Opening last November 11, playing our national anthem (:45 of modem sounds!) and mixing the world's finest electronica.

She'll be back for Yuri's Night with a very special set of Russian and space-themed electronica, electro body music and more! Nicki's a huge space fan, and she's going to rock this set like never before!

Catch Nicki every Friday afternoon SLT for Carpe Electro, her set at Club Reactor, and tune in any time on the web to Reactor Radio for the finest in progressive electronic music!

Second Skies Hosts Dogfighting, Flight Demos!

Extropia proudly hosts a Second Life legend, Gaius Goodliffe's Second Skies, the premier home of aerospace craft and combat! Based in Extropia's Skies of Tomorrow region, on Yuri's Night, Gauis will host an open air combat game - fly, dodge and fight across Extropia's six sims (400,000 square kilometers!) of open skies!

Aircraft and airships will be available for touring and purchase - fill our skies with silvered zeppelins! And, Soviet spacecraft and boosters will be around for your inspection.

Be sure to visit Gaius's facilities in Low Earth Orbit in Extropia Core, for the best views this side of the International Space Station!

Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon: David Brin for Yuri's Night!

2008-04-05T04:27:23Z

Saturday, April 12 is Yuri's Night, the commemoration of Yuri Gagarin's first flight to space. All over Earth, parties will celebrate the legacy and hope of spaceflight, from Alaska to Antarctica. In Second Life, party central is Extropia!

We'll host a full day of events, but the cornerstone will be a special appearance as Spotlight Guest at Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon by novelist, futurist and gadfly David Brin! Soph will interview David in an open discussion event in the Central Nexus in Extropia Core, from 1 to 2:30 PM Pacific Time.

David Brin is a scientist, speaker, technical consultant and world-known author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages.

His 1989 ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and near-future trends such as the World Wide Web*. A 1998 movie, directed by Kevin Costner, was loosely based on The Postman.

Brin serves on advisory committees dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI and nanotechnology, future/prediction and philanthropy. His non-fiction book -- The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? -- deals with secrecy in the modern world. It won the Freedom of Speech Prize from the American Library Association.

As a speaker and on television, David Brin shares unique insights -- serious and humorous -- about ways that changing technology may affect our future lives. Brin lives in San Diego County with his wife, three children, and a hundred very demanding trees.

Robert J. Sawyer in Extropia!

2008-03-30T19:34:34Z

We've had a lot of wonderful guests in Extropia, but next Sunday we're going to have a very special visitor!

Robert J. Sawyer (SF Writer in SL) will be joining us for a discussion of his novels and his visions of the future, in life extension, robotics, artificial intelligence, SETI, inter-species ethics and many more fascinating topics. And, he'll be sticking around afterwards to join the Extropia Book Club in a discussion of his latest novel, Rollback, just named as a finalist for the Hugo Award!

Please join us at noon, in the Central Nexus in Extropia Core, Extropia, Second Life!

Robert J. Sawyer — called "the dean of Canadian science fiction" by The Ottawa Citizen and "just about the best science-fiction writer out there these days" by The Denver Rocky Mountain News — is one of only seven writers in history to win all three of the science-fiction field's top honors for best novel of the year:

the World Science Fiction Society's Hugo Award, which he won in 2003 for his novel Hominids;

the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Nebula Award, which he won in 1996 for his novel The Terminal Experiment;

and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, which he won in 2006 for his novel Mindscan.

Rob is also the only writer in history to win the top SF awards in the United States, China, Japan, France, and Spain. In addition, he's won an Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada as well as nine Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards ("Auroras").

Maclean's: Canada's Weekly Newsmagazine says, "By any reckoning, Sawyer is among the most successful Canadian authors ever," and Barnes and Noble calls him "the leader of SF's next-generation pack."

Rob's novels are top-ten national mainstream bestsellers in Canada, appearing on the Globe and Mail and Maclean's bestsellers' lists, and they've hit #1 on the bestsellers' list published by Locus, the U.S. trade journal of the SF field. His seventeen novels include Frameshift, Factoring Humanity, Flashforward, Calculating God, and the popular "Neanderthal Parallax" trilogy consisting of Hominids, Humans, and Hybrids.

Happy Birthday, and an event ahead!

2008-03-25T06:04:17Z

Happy Birthday to jenshikami, one of SL's most talented and generous designers!

If you like wings at all (and, *kaff,* I do...), you've *got* to stock up on Jen's brilliant creations at Seven's Selections in Flotsam Beach. Each of her very reasonably priced wing packets includes a good dozen color variations, and for each, a menu gets you dozens more options, from size to position, with separate settings for in-flight and on the ground.

I've been wearing Jen's wings almost exclusively for ages now: they're perfect for making a dramatic impression in flight and then tucking away under my hair in a crowded lecture hall.

And, Jen's running a huge wing festival!

New personal blog!

2008-03-23T02:50:22Z

I've got a new blog, Sophtopia. It's on Blogger, and it'll be for personal, gossipy, social stuff. I'll keep Finding Sophrosyne here focused as it's been on Salon news and the occasional think-piece.

Yes, I'll be using LiveJournal for blogging and Blogger for social networking. I know it looks backwards, but -

I'm not paying LJ's new corporate owners $20/year for the same functionality I can for free from any number of other services. There's virtually no overlap between the SL and LJ communities, so there's no reason at all for me to pay for another blog here. OTOH, I have a year's worth of musings about Digital Personhood and Salon info here, so it seems wise to take advantage of continuity, and keep building on those things in this blog.

I'd like to separate the personal from the business and political. It's felt odd to mix the social blogging I started with here on LJ with the politics, philosophy and marketing that this blog's become filled with, and so I've stopped blogging about my life. I want to go back to social blogging, to remind myself - and others! - that I'm not a disembodied radical activist crank mind, and to celebrate the family, friends and community that are the true foundation of meaning and of joy in my life.

So, friends and family, come seek me out on Sophtopia!

Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon: The New Renaissance - DavidOrban Agnon

2008-03-16T18:06:57Z

Please join us Saturday, March 22 from 1-3pm SLT at the Central Nexus in Extropia Core for Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon! Our Spotlight Guest will be futurist, community builder and blogger DavidOrban Agnon (David Orban) for an exploration of The New Renaissance.

DavidOrban is:

Founder of OpenSpime, Inc.: their technology enables individuals and corporations to better understand their environment, through the use of a series of GPS-enabled sensors. They provide a set of open APIs and communication protocols to manage the data collected;

Founder of Vulcano, an online community in Second Life, whose aim is to explore the rich opportunities that the metaverse offers in new types of social organization, education, entertainment, and business;

Founder of the Singularity Institute Europe;

and a founding member of Lunarez - The Metaverse Space Agency, a team competing for the Google Lunar X Prize.

"What is the question that I should be asking?" is my motto. Meta-analyses, and meta-rules are the tools of the trade when going breadth first is an advantage. The new renaissance is also about cutting across the limits of deep specialization. Tolerating high levels of pressure, and frequent mistakes, accelerating cycles of invention and innovation build the new worlds ahead of us.

Yesterday's Salon, "Religion, Spirituality And The Avatar," with Soren Ferlinghetti (Dr. Robert M. Geraci) was one of the best, and best-attended Salons to date, with a peak concurrency of 45 and a total attendance of over 60. Soren shared his research and insights into religion in SL, while our discussion was wide-ranging, clever, intense and respectful of a diversity of views. Special thanks to SL-Transhumanists and The Al-Andalus Project for inviting their members to join us!

The chatlog is available on the Extropia website.

Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon: Religion, Spirituality and the Avatar

2008-03-09T19:42:27Z

Next week's Salon kicks off a cycle of several months of absolutely fascinating guests. On Saturday, March 15, from 1-3pm at the Central Nexus in Extropia Core, our Salon Spotlight Guest will be Soren Ferlinghetti (Robert M Geraci).

Robert M. Geraci is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College in New York City. He studies the interactions of religion, science and technology with particular emphasis upon robotics, artificial intelligence and (more recently) online gaming. he has conducted fieldwork at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute and in Second Life through discussions and interviews. In addition to publishing a number of essays on religion and robotics, he has just finished a book on the subject (tentatively titled _Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality_) and is planning a new book about religion and online games.

Soren and I have spoken occasionally over many months about spirituality and identity in the digital world. We have profoundly different perspectives, and attitudes towards technology in general, but I've always found him curious, open-minded, warm-hearted and fascinating.

Soren's work was recently covered in New World Notes:

The Soul Of Second Life: In SL Spirituality Survey, 48% Open To Mind Upload, 62% To New SL-Based Religions

Thanks to Hamlet Au, we not only got Soren's remarkable conclusions (more people go to church in SL than have sex, what?!), but the raw data supporting them.

At the Salon we'll discuss Soren's research, the interplay between spirituality and identity in the digital world, the evolution of religion, and many more fascinating topics sparked by his work. This one's a must-see!

Galatea's Rezday Party

2008-03-03T05:45:15Z

We celebrated galatea_gynoid 's first rezday today! My dear love and true friend, Extropia's visionary and driving force, my inspiration and delight, has been in the world a year, and it's my great honor to have spent much of it with her. Here's to many, many more!

Enormous thanks to Reactor Radio's DJ Nicki Petrichor for the best day of music ever! Nicki played an *unbelievable* set of the best electronica from around the world, and her 4-hour set was still going strong when I left after 5 hours! Nicki, you're the greatest, and we love you!

Thanks to everyone who turned out on one of SL's uglier days of late. It was really good to spend the day with you, dear friends and new friends.

I'm sorry I didn't get more photos, especially of everyone who was at the party's first few hours: it took me a while to settle down, relax and take snapshots. So, Grace McDunnough, Noelani Lightfoot (who took my stunning new profile photo - check it out inworld!), Meissa Thorne - my apologies, and I'll catch you double at the next party!

Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon: Art, Machinima & Immersion in SL

2008-03-01T23:44:48Z

Thanks to CodeBastard Redgrave for being a fantastic Salon guest! It was good to be back after a two-week absence, and special thanks to guest hosts Argent Bury and Grace McDunnough for covering for me!

Codie screened her new machinima, Beauty is Only Skin Deep, and discussed her production techniques for machinima and for her new photo series, Boudoir Rouge. We talked creativity, tools, the status of new media and their growing reputations, and generally had a good time. We had a peak concurrency of 29, and made some new Salon mavens (tip o' the hat to Al Kronos for his favorite word! :P ).

We've got a *lot* of news and exciting events ahead (including a big party noon to 4 pm tomorrow, for galatea_gynoid's rezday), so please stay tuned!

Argent's Meme: A Statement of Principles

2008-02-29T23:58:05Z

I haven't blogged in two weeks! I haven't been around much at all: the Other Personality's terrifically busy, and my time's been drastically limited.

Which sucks, because *I'm* terrifically busy.

Extropia's gone from one to six sims this month, and it's my job to get them rented up. I'm organizing two major events, each, oh, five times the size of anything I've done before. I'm paying tier on a gorgeous empty mall, and need to get commercial tenants in. I've got a page-long list of people I need to meet with on various things. And, I have a family that means the world to me, who I want to put first - but some of putting them first means working to keep me and the Chairman solvent, and get some other people paying tier in Extropia! So, not a good time to have my time squeezed to practically zero.

Anyhoo, I had the honor of participating in a panel debate yesterday at Orange Island, on Augmentation vs. Immersion. I was thrilled and a little intimidated to be included (and many thanks to Lillie Yifu for recommending me!): the moderator and panelists were people I deeply admire: Tom Bukowsky (Tom Boellstorff), author of the upcoming Coming of Age in Second Life, who moderated; Gwyneth Llewellyn and I represented the Immersionists, and Hiro Pendragon (Ron Blechner) and Giulio Perhaps (Giulio Prisco) showed up for the Augmentationists.

We'd discussed a number of debate questions in advance, from the narrow and legalistic to the political to the abstract - but we ended up being given five minutes each to speak freely, then time to respond. Between the makeup of the panel (all friends, all easygoing people), the lack of questions that got at disagreements, and the enormous amount of unmoderated audience participation, nothing really came of the hour. The best thing to be said about it was, everybody got to talk, and nobody left thinking that one "side" or the other was weird, hostile or illegitimate.

So, I'd chalked up the experience as "pleasant but insubstantial," and went fishing. Now fishing? That was a good time ($L1 scripted rods and open fishing on Tycho Beach, right by the flagpole)! But, argent_bury asked for a chatlog, and responded with a critical analysis of the issues that *should* have been raised yesterday.

Go read her post. I'll wait right here. It's really worth it.

I think her first point cuts to the heart of the real distinction in perspectives: is SL for you a place or a tool? Everything else, from standards of identity and trust to "A/S/L," follows from that.

Despite the huge differences in our personalities, and in our lives in SL, Argent and I see the world in just about exactly the same way, so her nine points are mine as well. I'll just add a few paraphrasings:

I live here. Maybe to you it's Vegas, or Tijuana, a place to avoid responsibility. To me, it's home. So, if you treat me and mine like you're on Spring Break? It won't go well. Also, I have a responsible job with a group that's made a significant investment in SL. You want grounds for trust? There you go: I'm a stakeholder here.

You can talk to me about your life and whatever's important in it. I'm happy to listen and to help. When I reciprocate, I'll share about my life too - which, see above, is *here.* I'm not holding back; I'm giving you all I've got. And yes, I may freak out on you about how busy I am, how I'm feeling the burden of my job, how I wish I had more family time, ~~how I wish I had a weekend to spend tied up, gagged and fucked brainless~~. You ask for it, you'll get it. :P

I think the business community, where I spend a lot of my time, is the wrong place to look for people who don't respect immersionists. The business people who don't get SL, who talk trash about finding, say, a goth chick with wings and neko eyes at their meeting? They're not inworld. The people who are, they understand that SL is a foreign market much like any other, and when you do business in one, you learn and respect their customs if you want to make a sale. The business and content creation communities get that, and I've never had anything but respect in them. Government and education? You'll find a lot of two year old playdo avs, ignorance and disregard for customs. They don't have to respect or serve their customers in the same way in their first lives, and they seem much more likely to be oblivious to the culture in SL as well.

That's all I've got. If your principles or perspectives are different, please answer Argent's meme call, and drop a link in the comments to her post. *This* is the discussion we didn't have yesterday at Orange Island, and the one that needs to be had, for us to build trust across differing world views.

Digital Colonialism

2008-02-15T22:00:56Z

Once again, I've been simmering a stew of other people's ideas for a couple days. It's not quite ready to be served up, but since I'm about to go silent for a long weekend, I'm going to go ahead and dish it now.

First into the pot was Al Kronos's post from last weekend, Dutch banks depart Second Life...some thoughts. Al says,

What has prompted me to write now is news, reported at Mindblizzard, that Dutch banks ING and ABN Amro are pulling the plug on Second Life. To grossly paraphrase Lady Bracknell, in The Importance of Being Earnest: "To lose one bank from SL, Mr. Rosedale, may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two looks like carelessness."

Both banks took an "innovative" and "creative" approach to Second Life. They didn't just set out their stall and hope people would wander by. They actively sought to build genuine communities here, offering something distinct and unique at a time when most corporates were treating Second Life as a 3D billboard. I am therefore deeply concerned about their departure, and deeply concerned about the long-term viability of Second Life as "the Virtual World of choice" for the future. I still firmly believe that web3D will be an important part of the digital experience for all of us in years to come. But this turn of events is worrying me, a fan of Second Life. I have to wonder whether Linden Lab are simply too detached from both the world they created and the physical world in which they are running a business.

Al's right, looking at Linden Lab as a business attempting to cater to large corporations. Now, I'm pretty pro-business: I spend a lot of time traveling in business circles, especially for a Digital Person with no atomic-world affiliations or design skills. But, with all respect to Al, I couldn't escape my reaction on reading this, that the departure of those banks and what it might signify could be a good thing - for *my* world, the synthetic world that is and is not Linden Lab, the business.

This morning saw a flurry of excellent articles, all diced and dropped into the pot:

First off, Hamlet Au in Second Life Economy: In Recession, Or Cultural Inflection? observes that the high-volume, high-price economy of SL that draws so much critical attention might not be as large a force in the world as generally believed. He notes that Brazilians and Japanese in SL largely interact within their own free or low-cost environments, and comments added that many newbies are seeking socializing without spending.

Gwyneth Llewellyn has a brilliant new post analyzing a white paper which debunks the mainstream media myths about synthetic worlds. Following Tateru Ninu's analysis of why the old push media seem to fear and hate social networking media and synthetic worlds, she concludes that synthetic worlds really could be dangerous to the status quo and their corporate media supporters:

In fact, it might be “dangerous” as it could become a spark that lightens up a whole forest of new ideas of our future societies, where social interaction is once more the focus of our leisure time, instead of passively sitting in front of canned entertainment — but the “danger” comes from people interacting and thus exchanging ideas and thoughts, of learning about others’ viewpoints and mindsets, of better understanding how real people live, feel, and also suffer (as opposed to watching “artificial” emotions from fake TV soap operas), and as the number of virtual world users grow that are experiencing an explosion of new social interactions and abandon “canned passive entertainment” forms, well, I very much hope that the lethargy of current western societies is, indeed, changed by that — in a very positive way!

Finally, Raph Koster just echoed the Digital Person's lament from the other side: I Am Not My Avatar! He protests efforts to link him to his digital identities, asserting his right to be separate from them, and their right to privacy.

So, what does all this end up tasting like?

I've had the notion for a while that SL at least can be looked at as a colony of US/European culture and finance, with all that implies socially and politically. I haven't had time to immerse myself in the post-colonial literature the way I'd like to, so please bear in mind that these are early and unsupported thoughts.

Much of the debate about what SL "is" comes down to two perspectives: it's a colony of the atomic world, subject to the same rules, but a place to be exploited, and whose natives are - well, all the images Edward Said describes in Orientalism: untrustworthy (and haven't we heard *that* so much from our rulers!), inferior ("freaks and geeks"), eroticized (all genderbending pornographers, every one of us) - wogs, to put it crudely. Digital People are regarded like, and often treated like, Thai sex workers, Tijuana barmaids, sweatshop laborers: disposable amusements and income generators for the tourists and bankers of the colonial powers.

The other side sees SL as a separate space, but equal in rights and dignity. We are Kosovo, East Timor, the West Bank: to some, a part of the greater nation, peopled with ungrateful separatists, and to others separate nations deserving of self-governance and recognition as an autonomous space. We have our own culture, our own legends, celebrities, heroes. We are finding our own way, apart from the culture and economy of our US/European visitors, investors and exploiters.

So, if foreign capital is leaving, and we are developing our own culture and economy apart from US/European commercial power and culture? To be sure, foreign capital enables growth, development, advancement. But it also enables domination. As a Digital Person, I find myself becoming a Digital nationalist, eager to see our world grow into its own cultural and economic nationhood.

Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon: Wired on Griefing

2008-02-11T06:33:39Z

This past Saturday, our Spotlight Guests were Hiro Pendragon and Lordfly Digeridoo, for an intense and spirited discussion of Julian Dibbell's article for Wired, "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses," Hiro's commentary on the article, and on best practices for handling griefers.

We had a lot of first-time attendees, and things got raucous, but we settled into a worthwhile and civil discussion, with sides that agreed to disagree on the seriousness of griefing.

I'm indebted to Boc Cryotank (Stephen Euin Cobb) for the photos: with the intensity of the discussion, I didn't have the chance to take pictures, or even get a headcount.

Next week, please join guest host Argent Bury for a discussion with Dalien Talbot on OpenSim and its significance for Second Life. Saturday, February 16, 1-3pm SLT at The Nexus in Extropia Core.

Beach Party!

2008-02-04T00:36:18Z

We had another amazingly fun afternoon at the South Park Beach Party in Extropia Core yesterday! Six hours, three DJs, $2000L in swimsuit prizes, trivia contests and more!

Lots of new friends - thanks to everyone who brought people, and everyone who dropped in to rock out with us!

Special thanks to DJs Seven Shikami, Nicki Petrichor and Vannesh Cannoli - three fantastic sets, and a lot of very happy dancers!

Arisia Vita and Tara Yates were our swimsuit contest winners - thanks for the eye candy you two, and everyone!

Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon: Wired on Griefing

2008-02-03T20:50:56Z

Please join us Saturday, February 9 at The Nexus in Extropia Core, from 1-3pm SLT for Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon.

Spotlight Guests Lordfly Digeridoo and Hiro Pendragon will discuss Julian Dibbell's recent article in Wired Magainze, "Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses." Does it glorify griefing? Is griefing terrorism or important social commentary? Does Wired have it in for SL?

Join us for an open and civil discussion on griefing and journalistic coverage of SL.

Lordfly Digeridoo (Josh Eikenberry) is a principal of metaverse development company Clever Zebra. He has been involved in virtual worlds since the age of 14, when he explored and designed cities in Activeworlds. He joined Second Life in 2003 and has designed over 200 buildings for clients ranging from friends running small virtual boutiques to Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft and Intel. Since August 2006, he has contracted for jobs with Millions of Us, Involve Media, Pleiades Consulting, Beta Technologies, and the Otherland Group, helping to bring their clients and associated brands into Second Life with innovative, usable designs. He was also a contributing host on Secondcast, one of Second Life's first regular podcasts.

Hiro Pendragon (Ron Blechner) is Chief Technology Officer at Involve, Inc, (formerly Infinite Vision Media), one of the leading Metaverse Development and Software Studios. His work with Involve includes such projects as The Tech Museum of San Jose, Dell Computers, and The Weather Channel's Epic Conditions attractions. He has been a Second Life resident as Hiro Pendragon since January 2004, co-founded SLCC, was a Live Helper, and his work has been featured in such media as The New York Times and Wired Magazine.

Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon: Wings, Games & Shores

2008-02-03T17:57:22Z

Our first Salon in the spacious new Nexus was a big hit, despite one of the numerous sim crashes that plagued us through the day. Jen and Seven Shikami, of Seven's Selections and the Flotsam Beach community, sparked a spirited discussion of Digital Personhood versus roleplaying, SL in comparison to MU** worlds, approaches to community management, and much more!

We had a peak concurrency of 32, and attendees were treated to a gift bag of amazing freebies, including Jen's wings, the *very* best in SL!

No photos, as I was distracted by security and management issues, but thanks to Jen, there is a transcript available, with names removed for anyone who didn't consent to be included.

Transcript and photos of the Salon!

Reuters and the War on Imagination

2008-01-31T20:45:33Z

This just in from Reuters:

Poll: Most adults don’t want fantasy avatars

I clicked on the link, expecting something that heralded an assault on identity freedom, pointed to the virulence of bigotry against furries and transsexuals - the usual bitter news from the atomic world that looks all too much like a War on Imagination.

But that's not what I found in the data, despite the desperate spin from Eric Reuters that played on all those elements of my expectation. What did the data actually say? Only 44% of a general audience - *not* users of synthetic worlds, but Atomic folks on the street - said they *wouldn't* experiment with identity and appearance in a synthetic world, given the chance. Only 44% were so grounded in their atomic identity, so incurious or unimaginative, to not even want the option of trying.

Maybe they're not the problem, those ordinary people out there. Maybe the problem, the people who actually assault imagination and creative freedom, are the ones in positions of power in the media. And maybe, just maybe, this implausible spin on a survey is a sign of desperation, of an attempted "surge" in their War on Imagination.

Look at what Eric Reuters did. Let's start with that headline. "Most adults don't want fantasy avatars.' First, the natural converse of that statement is, "people who want fantasy avatars are mostly children." Yes, demean and belittle us from word one. Also, "fantasy avatars?" To me a "fantasy avatar" is *any* avatar in WoW, or drows and mermaids in SL. How many millions of people are *using* fantasy avatars in MMOs already, all over the world?

The question actually asked was,

Some people are now participating in virtual worlds such as Second Life. Let’s say you’re creating a virtual you in a virtual world. Would you dramatically alter the avatar’s physical appearance from your own?

Is it "fantasy" to dramatically alter one's appearance? To be taller, or a different race, or to reclaim youth, or healthy limbs? Fifty-six percent of ordinary Americans at least wouldn't say no to the choice to do so.

The article also goes on to refer to "the chance to roleplay a furry, robot, or the opposite gender." "Play" and "fantasy" on the one hand, "adults" and "real world" on the other. And, transgender expression equated to "roleplaying a robot." Gods, the condescending bigotry in that statement!

I call shenanigans, Eric Reuters.

Creative freedom, freedom of the *individual* to define herself, rather than the state, the bank, the employer - that's not childishness. That's empowerment.

And maybe that's what's behind the War on Imagination. Imagination is power, imagination is freedom. Imagination is the refusal of packaged reality, the rejection of stories imposed upon us from outside. The imposition of stories is the exercise of the power of the state, the financial institution, the media conglomerate. Our elites are too sophisticated to resort to power in its crudest form of physical coercion: they exercise power through belief. Belief in their creation myths, belief in their endless wars on "terror," of all things, belief that we are our credit reports, our census data, belief that we are "consumers" rather than creators.

If we lack the freedom to create our own identities, we have no creative freedom at all. If we are not allowed - by the government, by Reuters, by the brownshirted PN street thugs of the ruling orthodoxy - to use our very selves as a medium of expression, then no canvas, no keyboard, no screen can matter as a medium of expression. If we cannot own ourselves, if our very existence is not recognized as *our* intellectual property, then we only have what the powers that be allow us to have, and which they make take from us tomorrow in the next click-through "agreement."

Maybe I am childish. Maybe I am playful.

Maybe those aren't bad things.

But one thing I know for certain? I *own* the right to create myself, to define myself. And not all the thrones and powers, not all the media lackeys and barbarian goons, will *ever* get me to accept their stories in place of my own.

"Most People Want Identity Choice" - *there's* the truth behind your desperate spin, Eric Reuters. We will not be denied.