I read pretty much everything related to synthetic worlds. Lately, my RSS feed (click on my Profile for a list, or my Friends page to view it all - I use LJ as my RSS reader) had a load of interesting and ridiculously diverse stuff. Here are some quick links and comments:

• The best article on the SL banking brouhaha: Virtually Blind delivers an exceptional interview with SL Bank's Teufel Hauptmann. It's clear, coherent and moderate, and highlights the problem of LL's having thrown out the baby with the bathwater. I've stayed out of commenting on this - it's not my field, and there's plenty of both knowledge and passion (though not always both at once) expressed by others on the subject. But, this is good stuff.

• Thanks to Alanagh Recreant for the link, an excellent blog post on Metaverse Development Companies' apparent departure from SL. The comments are intelligent and incisive - there's a lot of food for thought here.
  

• My LJ friend circuit_four  has been flying on afterburners of brilliance! Here's two long quotes that are well worth pondering:

"I think this must be what such moral teachers as Socrates, Jesus, and the Buddha mean when they advise us to wish our enemies well. Obviously we should not wish success to our enemies’ projects; for those projects are evil, and they could not cease to be evil without ceasing to be the projects they are. Hence hatred for those projects is quite in order. But people can always cease to be evil without ceasing to be. If they refuse to cease being evil, we may find it necessary, in self-defense, to make them cease to be; but we should always prefer that our enemies cease being evil. But what is that, but to prefer that our enemies become better people—that they live better, more worthwhile, less destructive, hate-filled lives? And if that is what we ought to prefer, then we ought to wish our enemies well. And while that is compatible with being angry at them, and with killing them if necessary, it is not compatible with hating them."

- Roderick Long

******

The "politically correct" and "politically incorrect" mentalities polarize against each other. One side set up taboos against intolerant speech; the other side backlashes with the same dumb age-old prejudices, but now they're proud of them because they can convince themselves it's heroic.

The antidote is to PIERCE those boundaries with real, honest, good-natured satire. Hip-throw them out of their most comfortable assumptions. Embrace your opponent's right to say whatever they want, 'cause it'll give you more dumb ideas to make fun of later. :) Be more interesting than your oppressor. Pull their assumptions right down to their ankles, with everybody watching.

• Via dandellion Kimban, some wonderful technofetish (NSFW) - Dita Von Teese dripping wet in silver...

• On Your Toes is a great new shoe-focused fashion blog.  Today, something almost as hot as Dita - Barcelona Slingbacks from Armida. Mmmm, want.....

• I need some time to craft a detailed reply to this: Avatar Rights: A Person Chooses, A Tool Obeys. I'll do a long post tomorrow in response.  The short answer?  400 years of law and custom say otherwise. I'm frustrated with this to the point of fury - writing a long quasi-academic response will hopefully get me past wanting to punch babies, and let me keep my paid-up membership in the Cult of Civility.
  

 

10 Reasons I'd Rather Marry a Robot

Regina Lynn's Sex Drive column in Wired last week, in response to the new book Love + Sex With Robots - which I have, and hope to get around to reading and reviewing later in the month!


And, as Vidal carefully didn't say last night when galatea_gynoid  dropped the link on us - KAWAII!!!!!!

Less Than Three!

The New York Post covers robo-sexuality:

Unsurprisingly, all the usual talking heads are dismissive:

Cosmo editor Helen Gurley Brown concedes, "It's better for a woman to have a male robot in her life than no companion at all. But a real-life man, even with all his innumerable faults, is still better."

Despite an appetite for some artificial parts in a woman, Playboy's Hugh Hefner, "without question," votes for real women. "I suppose a benefit of robots is they'll be more reliable," Hefner says. "But that's the charm of being human, the element of surprise.

"Sex," he says "would become very routine and robotic."

Hefner insists he wouldn't make a sexy robot Playboy's centerfold - although "it might have a place in the gadgets section."

Meanwhile, Wired sex columnist Regina Lynn yawns, seeing robots as just another option.

I think they're missing the disruptive potential of even very limited AI, and falls into the "why would anyone need their own computer?" category of just not seeing the implications of a new technology. 

I haven't really developed my argument on the other side, but, quickly - sexbots would seem to be an acceleration of the "bowling alone" trend - the atomizing of atomic-world society.  There are a lot of social forces acting together to break down all social ties except those to work.  People are lonely and isolated, and when you offer them an easier and technically better solution to sex needs, free of disease, dangerous weirdness and hanging the toilet role the wrong way, infinitely skilled and attentive to your every need?  Yeps, it'll be huge.

I think digital worlds are on the other side of the balance, allowing us the kind of connections that have become more challenging in the atomic world.  SLex and teledildonics offer a sexual connection to another sentient being.  The technical values might not be as good as with a purpose-built sexbot, but intimacy matters - at least for some of us, some of the time.  :)  Which, I think is Regina Lynn's point.

All the same, the Post article is really pretty great. It's  in response to the release of AI pioneer David Levy's book, Love and Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human - Robot Relationships.  Which sounds terrific, and is on its way from Amazon, so expect a review in a while.

In related news, South Korea will be opening *two* robot-themed amusement parks! Ooo, rides!  :D

And, a link from the much-missed London Spengler, the Clockwork Concubine!  I'm on my way!

Meet the Warrior X700 from iRobot.  No, this isn't the hot new holiday toy or a brand of stereo speakers that go up to 11 -  it's the latest in US Army military robotics.


It can lift 150 pounds with that arm, roll a mile in 4 minutes (by the time it's field ready) and fire a machine gun. There's also a Taser-equipped version for police work. Here's a good short article about this by the author of Almost Human: Making Robots Think, a book I'll be reading soon...

I'm all for sparing humans for dangerous work - but this is a step closer to the world we're making, where machines are agents of social control, where power grows from the barrel of a gun whose owner can't be swayed, who can't smell the crowd's fear, who can't be brought to feel solidarity with his targets. We have this brilliant technology, but are we using it to enslave ourselves?  What kind of person would look at that machine and think to accessorize it with a gun?  (iHandjob, one of the commenters suggested  - *that's* more like it!) 



In happier robot news, my love Vidal sent me this this morning:  *that's* a robot application I'd like to see!  (yes, there's an element of submission and servitude in imagining her  - oh gods - shaving my legs - but I promise the power relations would balance out, and we'd *both* need recharging before too long!)

'So Who Wants to F**k a Robot?'

The Arse Elektronika sex and technology seminar in San Francisco opened with a bang Friday at Kink.com's Porno Palace. Quite literally.

I *so* wish I could've gone to this! Thanks, galatea_gynoid , for the link!


Sexy Second is a new SL fashion blog, covering the steamier side of the street! It's *really* good stuff, covering old standbys like Dark Eden and DE Designs, and some hot new things as well!


Heroine Sheik

Heroine Sheik is a Village Voice blog about sex, gender, and video games. It’s also about cultural criticism, artistic analysis, and occasionally delicious confections.

Anybody else got any technosxual fun to share?

Here's a terrific interview with Ridley Scott, marking the 25th anniversary of the best movie ever, Blade Runner. There's going to be a limited theatrical release of the new remastered version! I may have to steal atomic-world transportation and make a pilgrimage... !

Artist's NSFW Creations Envision Robot Sex

Here's the video mentioned in the article: it's stylish, quirky, kind of hot and kind of creepy (and what does it say about me that my reaction to the threesome with the robot horse was "mmm," but to the roomful of robot babies was "eww, squick!"??)


And, in other news, I want Sarah Corvus to do me on a rooftop in the rain! :P

42% Don't See Virtual Relationships As Infidelities

Prompted by the Wall Street Journal's story of an already married man virtually wedding his Second Life love interest, SpunLogic launched a study to investigate perceptions of fidelity online and in virtual world. While 90% of respondents saw face-to-face meetings as absolutely unfaithful, that number dropped as th e level of technology involved rose. Only 58% saw virtual world interactions as unfaithful. That number is higher in males and both genders under 24. As the younger digital natives take over, Spunlogic is interested in how that will change the way we interact online. "Infidelity, a behavior normally deemed unacceptable in human-human interaction, becomes more acceptable when interactions are mediated by various technologies," said Dr. Melissa Read, Spunlogic's Director of Behavioral Research. "What other socially inappropriate behaviors might be perceived as acceptable when produced in technology-mediated interactions. And, more importantly, why?"


I'm interested in that under-24 figure. I think a problem here is the term "infidelity." A "no" answer could mean either "it's not real sex" or "it's not covered by my agreement to be monogamous with you." There's a hyoooge difference between those two! If the second one is what's rising among people who've grown up immersed in other worlds - *that's* interesting.

*Is* there anybody who's, say, partnered in the atomic world, partnered to somebody else in Extropia, in a clan marriage in WoW, a Gorean slave in SL, etc.?

I *love* the unfolding of possibilities!



On the far other hand, however....

Play What You Are

Timothy Burke

Following a link from f13 to Kotaku brings me to a story that the management of the Chinese MMOG King of the World has suspended accounts owned by male players who used female avatars. Supposedly by using required webcams to verify the match between the gender of character and players.


Just.... WTF???  Anybody have any insights into what's going on *there* culturally?

From Doktor Sleepless #2...




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(and in case you think the subject line of this post is an exaggeration - we (me, ali_hermes, argent_bury, galatea_gynoid and vidaltripsa) were just talking about singing in modem a couple days ago, and are, um, down with the collective sensual experience thing, you might say :D  )

 


There!  I said it!  

(the bumper sticker  - and awesome Ts and babydolls -  are available here)


The artwork below is from Jeffrey Scott's Visions From WIthin The Mechanism: The Industrial Surrealism of Jeffrey Scott (1019) - please buy the book if you like his work, and support this wonderful artist!

....sometimes your toys break you....









And some Flickr photos for my Miss V. and any other doll/bot fetishists out there: