Is This the Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy? by Doc Nolan

 We tend to be victims of our experiences and our preconceptions. I once disagreed with a friend in our virtual world about easels for announcements. My argument: Why not put the wording on both sides of a sign and “hang” it in the sky, possibly revolving, since there’s no gravity or need to “hold something up”? She never agreed. She still uses easels. I’m constantly wondering, too, about roofs in AMV – without rain or snow, why bother with them? As for the idea that people can ‘see and take your stuff,’ that is silly, too, for obvious reasons.

I imagine that over time roofs will vanish, as will easels, but when? We already have skyboxes, unsupported by long legs reaching to “the ground.” And many (though not all of us) routinely fly over regions (no aircraft, mom!) to see how objects below are arranged. On the other hand, one finds airports around virtual worlds. (Whatever for?)

Those who are ancient may remember “teleport hubs.” You went to a location (featuring a ‘hub’) and then could go to another ‘hub’ and look for your final destination. Today, we go from “here” (wherever we happen to be at the moment) to a place that may be near or far if you use a map. In a time of LMs and click to go there transport, I seldom pay much attention to pseudo-geography. How near is Pharr? If it involves time and gasoline or buying tickets, that matters, but if they all vanish, what difference does it make to wonder, ‘How near is Pharr?’ 

So our visual realities and concerns obviously and irrationally carry over from “real life” to “virtual worlds.” Nonetheless, as demonstrated by skyboxes, they do tend to fade as we invent new visual structures.

I tend to kick over old architectural designs but have not yet faced reinventing social networks. Here things get complicated, especially with alts and the ability to change appearances. (“Is the blonde named Trixie the same person as the redhead named Alicia?” And do I care?) I have people I “know” in virtual worlds whose “carbon-based” avatars in the real world live in Bulgaria, Germany, South Carolina, Venezuela, and Ecuador –to name a few. And lately, I have dug into the complexities of a murderer in America named Alex Murdaugh who fooled his law partners, friends, neighbors, and wife and son into seeing a ‘fake’ person (an invention; an alt, so to speak). Who is the real person you think you know both in real life and virtual worlds?

And again, at least in a place like AMV, where no one can murder you, does it make a lot of difference? I don’t know.