I am not a fracking Cylon

Art in the form of literature, television and film has created fictional artificial intelligence that becomes indistinguishable from organic intelligence. It provides a wonderful vehicle to discuss concepts of consciousness, being human or falling in love. Whether they are Blade Runner "skin jobs" or Battlestar Galactica "cylons" the androids are struggling for identity and acceptance. This is all fine in fiction but trying to apply it to a truly interactive world is a huge challenge. We aren't quite there yet.

In nonfiction world AI has improved and the computational power of computers gets better and better. There are currently some interactive psychological programs that respond to text or voice and do a pretty good job of fooling quite a few people. Of course there is the computer that beat the Chess Grand Master, Kasparov. AI continues to make inroads. Computer gaming is one area that has pushed AI further and further along. From the earliest text based adventure game and even Pacman ghosts chasing you as you crunch the dots to much more sophisticated bots in first person shooter games. I can remember playing Unreal Tournament online and not realizing that my opponents were AI Bots until I had been playing for a couple days. The AI bots would razz me and cuss me out when I killed them like living players. I figured it out when they repeated the same phrases enough times. The Sims game created a whole new level of AI bots. The players can create their own bots that run around and interact with each other. They are given tools to define the characteristics and aspirations of the Sim bots. This is much more sophisticated AI than the the bots in FPS game. It is not a huge leap to imagine Sim like avatars running around SL with out people behind them. The only reason I would want to do is to just see if it is possible. One can use the Second Life open source client to interface a neural network AI cluster to drive an avatar bot capable of interacting with living avatars. This takes away the issue of creating all the physical robotics so one could focus on just the AI. Create a heuristic AI that could begin SL as a newbie and learn as it explores Second life.

People already run rudimentary bots in SL to camp for Lindens or act as greeters in clubs. I would not be surprised if someone isn't taking that to a higher level. First to allow it to better interact to it's environment on its own. Second to interact with other Avatars and Third to create some level of personality and consciousness. These possibilities are pushing way beyond the limits of simple home desktop. I think they are exciting possibilities only because the are possible and want to see it done. Artificial Intelligence has been one of my many diversions in my life as a programmer and obsessive researcher. I doubt I will have the time to take it very far.

Fig Newtons of the Imagination,

I am guessing you have probably heard the saying; "There are three kinds of people; those that make things happen, those that watch things happen and those wonder what happened." I am thinking it is the third kind that don't last in Second Life. Obviously it is the first kind that is building SL and the second kind that is sustaining it. We are still learning about virtual worlds. Some learn faster than others. Some learn without words. Virtual worlds are only limited by technology and imagination. In the end it is just imagination that is the limiting factor in Virtual worlds. It is also imagination that solves the technology limits.

Looking at a problem with fresh eyes. Some of the things I learned working on Clemson University Graduate School weren't just about building. I learned about about perception as it relates to imagination. Simulat is a wonderful builder to work with he could do the math to make wonderful large shapes by piecing the parts together from smaller prims. At the same time he was going to give up on scluptie stairs because he couldn't figure out how to make them work in SL. A sculpltie object is larger than what you see. Which why all the pillars in Twilight are phantom. Stairs are just a big cube so they have to be phantom too. Walking up phantom stairs is challenging to say the least. The solution is to put an invisible but solid ramp inside them. I fixed his stairs in five seconds. We both looked at the same problems and saw different solutions. Sim found it amusing that he had overlooked such a simple solution. Second Life is both restricting and unlimited.

When I came to SL to build I was shocked by the limited tools I was given to build with. I had come from the 3D world of 3ds Max and Maya. It was like having used PhotoShop and then being limited to a 16 color paint program. It was exploring and seeing other peoples work that pulled my out of my own 16 color view of SL. I had to shed my RL views and found my SL brain. It was only then that I was able to see that possibilities were infinite. These restricted and unlimited paradoxes are not limited to building. They are repeated all through Ssecond Life. Relationships and Art are two others that come to mind.

At first glance SL relationships seem like Instant Messaging with graphics but over time bonds form our avatar's develop self consciousness. We extend ourselves to each other. We also find how unlimited and beautiful the world is as we make friends and partnerships from all over the world.

Art begins by mirroring two dimensional and 3 dimensional RL art. To those with imagination it eventually finds in own unlimited life. As it takes form in virtual worlds it can become n-dimensional immersion art. It doesn't take long to find the "real" limitations in all of Second Life but it is our imagination that takes us to the infinite possibilities. The ones that will shape the virtual worlds of our future are the ones that can see a "Fig Newton" when others only see "figments".

Sustainability; Everything You Know is False.

I was originally planning to write about the sustainability of virtual worlds but I have been thinking about the sustainability of avatars lately too. I will explore what that is and if they are even related. Many of us have been talking about how Second Life has been changing and It certainly hasn't been do to the technological improvements either. It has been more about the interests of its residents and the economic shifts related to that. If you look at the the number of people logged on at any one time it is usually between 50K and 60K compared to the mid 30Ks about a year ago. That would seriously imply that over all traffic is up and pretty stable from last year. The economic statistics seem to imply that Linden cash flow has made some recovery since the demize of casinos. Meanwhile, Stripping and Escort incomes have dropped substantially while Lazlo's has remained stable, cyclical but predictably stable. I think it comes back to the avatar. In the end that is what it is all about. care and feeding of the avatar. As the Second Life continues to grow at a more reasonable rate, avatars are maturing. Second Life is slipping ever closer to main stream.

Role playing of traditional RL roles have been replaced by more traditional social interactions, while outrageous thrill seeking aspects of role playing continue to thrive. The result is avatars are dividing into two camps with much fewer in the middle. They are either coupling in the more traditional romantic sense or going for the more "outrages" fetishes or free sex orgies. Stripping and Escorting become less attractive form of entertainment. I think there will always be a place and role for the sex worker in SL I think they will consolidate into fewer clubs. At this time stripping is really more of a social role play for the dancers rather than a viable business. I don't see any problem with stripping being another role play in SL as long as it is understood that the big money days will be much rarer than Galen's and Kerry's hay days of big bucks.So where is the money going? It goes back to care and feeding of the avatar. Clothes, hair, skins are still big money makers. Passive entertainment seems to be more about music and even then people seem to prefer to enjoy it dancing. It fits better with the couping aspect of SL.

Land continues to be a some what stable source of steady income. Lazlo may grumble but his projects have been mostly funded by his rental income. If he wasn't spending so many lindens investing in his various projects he would come closer to breaking even or even profit. It is his vision of an aesthetically pleasing island of creative cooperative people that has kept him from exploiting the potential of larger lindens. He is a he too much of an idealistic romantic to ever get rich. Twilight seems to have some level of stability in its base of tenants.Art is a whole other world in SL. I think it is an important part of Second Life. Its first function is of course is to provide expression for the artist. That is going to happen no matter what. The functions related to the patrons side are much more diverse. The educational aspect are for those that are just observers who appreciate or learn about art. Collector avatars who are buying to for their SL role play. Finally there are those that see the Second Life as an art form in itself. In the end I guess that becomes a mixture of both artist and patron and even educator. Maybe that is where Lazlo or even I am. Maybe Twilight is a virtual kinetic art experimient. For that matter maybe that is what strippers are. Gypsy is an excellent example of that as far a her Avatar goes. Kerry is also but much better on the textual side. She is a wonderful striptease artist. Second Life is only sustainable as long as the avatars are sustainable. As long as we can stay ahead of the the trends in Second Life business will be good. It will depend on if you can observe and adapt. One must fail quickly and recover quickly.

We are still at the beginning of virtual worlds. They are here to stay, but it is unclear what they will look like ten years from now. I am still a bit concerned that no one seems to be archiving or documenenting these early years except maybe in blogs. Virtual worlds with their compressed histories. In the end I still thinking trying to map real life into a virtual world can only partially work. (This is on a different level than Kerry's ideas about not expecting RL values in SL) We still need to incorporate what is and only is doable in VR. I think that is why the surrealism of AM Radio was so fascinating to me. It was the reminder that everything I know is false when it comes to virtual worlds.

Virtual Reality

We are seeing Virtual Reality blending into Reality. From Disney animation through the Final Fantasy Series animations become better and better at modeling real life. In the single player gaming worlds like Oblivion, F.E.A.R. and even Grand Theft Auto, the computer graphic produces a stark photo-realism that is both amazing and creepy. Real time technologies in the new graphic are bending the visuals to mimic our flawed vision making virtual worlds almost indistinguishable from real life. What we see in Second Life is only the edge of that world.

Scent and Taste printers are already being produced and experimented with. There are also mechanical Internet remote control genitals and sex toys. What we can imagine we humans can create. (That is scary sometimes) Imagine attaching these new technologies to all the emotional and sensual connections that manifest in virtual worlds like Second Life. What if avatars can return the physical sensations they share in cyber relationships?  Those with good sensual imaginations may never have need of these technologies, but consider the masses as they continue to migrate to virtual worlds leaving their bodies attached to their computers through newer and newer technologies. How is this effecting the evolution and growth of humanity? If this is an evolution, who is archiving and recording the history of these brief cities, regions or countries.

Those that have become emersed in Virtual Worlds quickly understand what is felt in world is real. It it can effect our first life. It is again part of  that rewiring I menteioned in my previous post. It is a part of evolution. I have noticed the same things happening to me. As Lazlo adjusts to his world I find my perceptions in this world adjust also. Not so much the same way as Lazlo's but more like I an infinitesimal tuning how I see and relate to the world. The picture seems a bit sharper. What we see in Second Life sometimes has real effect on my our first life. Not just sleep deprivation but we carry back some self esteem issues good or bad. We may even become more sensitive to first life social interactions that we might have ignored in the passed. This experiment called Second Life has taken virtual worlds to the point of being self sustaining real worlds existing in parallel virtual space. Each day it is laying down a larger and larger array of virtual reality. It is a world that folds in on itself and turns inside out larger than it was before. I don't know about you but to me this is very exciting stuff. 

I have no idea how or why we choose our friends and develop attachments in Second Life but then I am not totally sure how that works in or first life. I have found my own Small circle of friends to share my Second Life with yet Second Life is also about discovery, meeting people and making new friends.  I guess that is like our First like too but here we are only limited by our imaginations. 

Avatar as an out of body experience

My thinking; (My old boss Honda san used ot say this to me in his polite Japanese your-idea-is-full-of-shit tone)

Are virtual worlds, particularly ones like Sl part of our evolution? How long does it take for an avatar to become self conscious? There is a point where how your avatar looks begins to really matter.

How many avatars do you have? Maybe in SL you have only one. Maybe your first avatar was the Adventure text game you played as a kid on your dad's computer. Then there are all your IM avatars, still text base avatars with simple numeric or eight character names if you were in any many of the old Bulletin Board Forums. Your AOL screen name, your IRQ name, are all Avatars representing you at one time or another. Lets not forget your single player video game avatar that branched eventually to multi player games.

Second Life and other virtual worlds take the Avatar so much further than anything in the past. This is happening on several levels. If you have been in Second Life a few months think about how much your avatar has grown and become self conscious, almost self aware. She or he may be an extension of you as Lazlo is of me, but as a friend pointed out, she feels like she is being rewired.

The fact is we are being rewired. In Second Life we live with much more freedom of movement, of experience. We have unlimited free travel. We can't be physically harmed. We are able to create virtual physical objects out of nothing. We are able experience what we would never dare in RL. This is feeding our brain with new challenges and goals to achieve or overcome. Each new experiences, each new goal or challenge we over come, dumps dopamine into our system and makes us feel good so our brain lays down new neural pathways to get to that dopamine faster. The fact is our Avatars create a new freer sense of immortality.

Is this a step in human evolution? Are we at the beginning of humans letting go of their bodies. Is this just the first step? I am not saying it is my goal or it is anybodies goal but as cyber biology and neural technology allows us to experience touch, scent and taste in virtual worlds the possibilities are wide open. I am saying Second Life may be the point that we as humans began to leave our bodies. In addition consider the number of dis sabled people flying around Second Life free confinement enjoying Second Life being treated the same as everyone else.

It is all just a theory and I might just be full of horse pucky but theories are there to be proved of disproved.

"Morals at the Speed of Light"

As laggy as Second Life is at times it "speed of light" doesn't seem to apply there. Even with pixels popping in and out with jerky motions it still applies in terms of mass communication with new information coming into are heads faster than we can apply values to them. There are many different forms of culture modeling happening on different sims. Each one an Islands of social experiments. Tagged into those culture each avatar is a personal experiment in ourselves.

I shouldn't be so amazed at the several dramas that come up in Second Life on a daily basis. Some are my own doing and some are part of social fabric of the various Sims and groups in Second Life. Since there are people behind the pixels there are also egos and emotions that are triggered by what ever real world emotional or moral foundation that were smuggled into Second Life. Lets face is it sometimes our feelings get hurt.

Some people seem to come to Second Life as a place to rebel from their real life baggage and recreate themselves. On the other hand, some are like me, somewhat of a caricature of of their real world self. Exploring what they either don't have the opportunity or courage to explore in the real world. I seem to make personal discoveries about my nature, sensitivity and tolerances over and over again.

I find when it comes to relationships in Second Life the rules of engagement are different. Maybe since things happen at a much more accelerated rate everything is compressed and concentrated. Avatars might need a fine print label the says made from concentrate. I don't see why the same things that that trigger emotional responses in real life wouldn't trigger them here. Fear of loss, fear of being hurt or embarrassed, fear of being excluded and loneliness are some of the negative triggers. On the other hand we still have the positive triggers like acceptance, recognition, love, attention, learning and affection to name a few. In Second life it can be distilled essence of emotions coming through keyboards.

Out of all of this comes a social network with much sharper hills and valleys than Real Life. Small storms with luck followed by heavenly rainbows. Meanwhile we build friendships, lose friends, partners change, projects grow, evolve or fail. When things fall apart and the person behind the pixels gets hurt they might cry or get angry or leave Second Life or create a new Avatar and start over. Hopeful we learn from these experiences. We might learn what we want and how find a balance. We might learn to see beauty in ways we had never thought off. We might learn things about ourselves that we can take back and apply to our real life.

Where do these relationships go?

Second life has real people behind the pixels, real feelings, real emotions, real dependencies, and real broken hearts. All them bundled up into a condensed alternate reality. Yes there are those that just come in game to hook up and cyber away until they are all wanked out. On the other hand there are the deeply romantic relationships, intellectually and artistically stimulating relationships and of course combinations of all of these. In between all these wonderful feelings are emotions and egos. What is the long term impact on our psyche?

But what becomes of them. I believe that as we get older and remember what we have created in SL we won't remember that it was a virtual world. It will be just another memory on the top ten hit parade we play back as we recycle our memories. I am curious about what becomes of the relationships we develop in SL and how do they play out in or along side RL. What do you do when what your are experiencing in SL is more meaningful than RL. What does that say about our "Real Life".

I have friends in world that feel that SL and RL are separate, but that isn't really true. SL is just a subset of RL. RL may be kept out of SL but you can't do the reverse. SL is a part of our total life. We are in denial to think otherwise. What ever joy or pain we feel in SL are effect our real lives. In some cases it has built confidence and cause improvements in personalities and some others it may have done the opposite.

I have made some wonderful friends in Second Life. Friends I love spending time with. I never want to lose those friendships. I don't know if they would or could ever exist with out Second Life. I value them just the same.