> _
Documentary Fiction:_
SECONDAnd LIFE the Californian ideology
. Image of ‘Alt avi’ Umuntu 3 by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
Student no. 134815684 Bongani Elton Muchemwa
In second life .
Image by author Bongani Muchemw – Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
the future is now !
Abstract
2 "We live at a time not only far flung from the worlds author by early sci-fi writers like Philip K Dick but also the early-computer age that inspired Steve Linsberger’s Tron (1982)" and later the Wachowski Brother's Matrix trilogy (1999 - 2003). And “yet we don’t need to stretch our imaginations too much to recognize metaphoric parallels between the world of Tron and our own.“[1] Nowadays most of us “live parallel lives by way of our computers - our Facebook and Twitter personae, perhaps an avatar in Secondlife.com.“[2] Yet Virtual communities like The Sims, Open-simulator.com, and indeed secondlife.com are often dismissed and taken for granted as mere avenues for entertainment and escapism. Often they are associated with ‘wanna-be’ cyberpunks, anti- social subcultures of ‘geeks’, ‘nerds’ and other relatively marginalised social groups in the media. Besides the occasional dismissal by a small section of the media, virtual worlds and online communities are often spoken of with great optimistic favour. With every article and punditry one is often given the impression that these new online meeting ‘places’ are already creating a post-industrial utopia in our back yards. These messages often emerge from that Californian valley where silicon is turned into consumer goods like the iPod, and where code is turned into digital meeting 'places' like second life.com. This optimism is often referred to as the Californian ideology, which at present its projects seem to be complete.
[1] see: Peter Simek, Front Row magazine, What Tron Can Teach Us About Shakespeare: Notes on Technology and Idealism 2010 [2] see: bid [3]see: Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron Californian ideology 1994. www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/theory-californianideology.html [4] see: Ibid cited at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Californian_Ideology
It is what Secondlife.com alludes to; the ideology is the love child of unlikely parents, spawned in a Californian basement when the west coast yuppie met the west coast hippie. "This new faith has emerged from a bizarre fusion of the cultural bohemianism of San Francisco with the hi-tech industries of Silicon Valley. The Californian Ideology promiscuously combines the free-wheeling spirit of the hippies and the entrepreneurial zeal of the yuppies."[3] The Ideology was first defined by the university of Westminster’s academics, Andy Cameroon and Richard Barbrook in 1994 and further developed by other writers including the BBC film maker Adam Curtis in 2011. The Ideology is a pick and mix of the sweetest and hippest ideologies of our time. Its elements are synonymous with the 80s conservative government policies in Britain, such as neoliberal economics, and radical individualism. “It also combined the ideas of Marshall McLuhan, the “new left and new right beliefs together based on their shared interest in anti-statism, the counterculture of the 1960s, and techno-utopianism. Proponents believed that in a post-industrial, post-capitalist, knowledge based economy, the exploitation of information and knowledge would drive growth and wealth creation while diminishing the older power structures of the state in favour of connected individuals in virtual communities." [4]
Abstract Second life.com was "launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore the world (known as the grid), meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another.”[5] Second life has no quests, challenges or tasks, it’s not a game, and there is no point to it. It is a virtual world with an economy, from that a virtual city state has emerged. Second life is an experience machine for the future, it is simulated aspiration or a dry run for a near future to come - forget about transport, those hours spent on buses trains and cars. We would teleport from one place to another. We would all be programmed or we would program ourselves to look like 'Posh and Becks' and more, 'bigger this and smaller that', and forget about surgery, nose jobs and liposuction; Philip Rosedale (the creator of second life) implies this in his many presentations.[6] The aspirations are not merely changing our human architecture but also how we organise everything from society culture, economics and politics. This dissertation seeks to verify that the Californian ideology has influenced Second life, "given that Linden lab (the creators of second life) are based in California and it’s CEO, Philip Rosedale, grew up in San Diego." [7] It also seeks to find out how the Californian ideology has shaped second life’s lived experiences through the study of its landscapes, society, economy and politics.
[5] see: Wikipidia.com also see secondlife/wiki.com [6] see: Philip Rosedale second life 2008 Ted.com also see Philip Rosedale, Authors@Google.com 2008 [7] see: : Tom Boellstroff ,coming of age in second life 2008. pg 231 [8] see: Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, control and power 2006, pg 130 [9] see: defination crowdsourcing at wikipidia.com, aslo see Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, control and power 2006 66-76 [10] see: ibid [11] see: quoted Prof Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Lecture The Possibilities and Limitations of Open Content 2010 at Leung Kuk Community College http://vimeo.com/16647697
“Glorifying the power of the mouse click, the pundits transformed the internet from 'dystopian badlands' "envisioned by many works of fiction "to user-controlled utopia.”[8] Blinding users to their own enslavement by platforms such as second life. The fact that to turn space into place in second life, is a method of mass exploitation of residents, process called crowdsourcing. It is a process that involves "outsourcing tasks to a distributed group of people."[9] This process can occur both online and offline", in which the residents of second life become a resource to perpetuate itself. [10] Residents become second life’s product. This raises the question is second life a "Marxist utopia or a capitalist hell?"[11] It’s Marxist as in the sense that citizens have access to the means of production; since residents of second life are the main producers of all the places, products and culture. It is a capitalist hell in the sense that the leisurely creative activities of residents are a source of huge revenues for Linden lab. The dissertation will focus on highlighting the conflicts that result from this paradox.
3
Abstract A critical study of virtual worlds as a result is important as they are now ‘places’ that compete with our physical world for attention. In some way virtual worlds have extended the public space, and we are increasingly "are aware that our collective future is written on confettisized flakes of silicon" and that what is imbedded within the silicon and behind the screen are ideas that we should be aware of and question. [12] The main aim of the essay is to inoculate oneself from the Californian technology media’s mantra that has the tendency to treat "hype as reality" once and for all, but it is not to say that this hype is not real, I believe it’s half the story. [13]
[12] see: Mark Dery, Flame Wars: the Discourse of Cyberculture 1994 pg 16 [13] see: quoted Prof Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Lecture The Possibilities and Limitations of Open Content 2010 at Leung Kuk Community College http://vimeo.com/16647697
4
. Image of Alt Umuntu 1 shopping by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
. Second life Image by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
7
>_____Adviser: William Firebrace >__Student Bongani E Muchemwa Student no. 134815684
Master of Architecture dissertation Subject matters – computing history, virtual reality, virtual worlds, simulation cybernetics, neoliberal economics, architecture and place making, ideology, postmodernism, techno-utopias, cyberspace, sci-fi, the cold war
>_____Acknowledgment For an education Gordon Shrigley and William Firebrace & Special thanks to Dr Richard Barbrook Professor Tom Boellstroff Dr Richard Allan Bartle For an education & Mr and Mrs Muchemwa For support
content. The grid's paradoxes and conflicts: Chapter 1
a) History and context virtual reality and virtual worlds. Pg 16 -21 b) History and context Californian ideology. Pg 22 - 29 c) Conclusion. Pg 30 -32
Chapter 2 a) Place making – land, architecture landscapes, community and the self. pg 33 -58 b) Political economy –property, creative labour, virtual governance . pg 59 - 68 c) Conclusion. Pg 69 -71
Chapter 3 The conclusion pg 72 -73 Plus Blibiograpphy Stats, survey results and Data Sample interviews with experts Sample interviews in sL Image book
> _ Preface
8
In the summer of 2009 I found my self entrenched in a number of technology media outlets, as I was writing an undergraduate dissertation entitled “The economics of digital fabrication and design for sustainable housing in slums.” I thought the convergence of design, a bit of back of the envelope economics and digital tools, ‘beefed up’ with some faith in technology would solve slums. My hypothesis had been grossly optimistic in the transformational effect of this convergence, and I had the right to be, these technologies had been responsible for architect Frank Gerhy’s Bilbao effect. I had been converted by America’s technology media priesthood the like of TED.com and wired magazine into the digital faith. Digital fabrication technologies had promised to extend and broaden the kind of relationship that the well off have had with professionals like architects, due to the decentralised and miniaturisation of the means of production, making customisation possible on a grand scale. The essay later envision a ‘social network’ with these technologies organised as nodes located in slums with brunches forming a flow of data with design solutions from all over the world through cyberspace. The branches would also form a direct communication between locals to provide ‘feedback’, making sure that the solutions were solved in a collaborative manner rather than hierarchical. This would become the 'tool village', for the charitable ‘creatives’ and architects, this would equip us for any 'world saving' project and our interventions would be direct due to the empowering nature of the internet. So I thought. Using the dominant ideology of the time I had envisioned a 'social network' for tools, with all the language and optimism of the current techno-culture. This optimism and rhetoric has global resonance, it has also entered our every day language, words like social network, self organisation, collaborative, content producer, networking, crowd sourcing, open source e.t.c and we often adopt the optimism in these technologies that the technological pundits in the media preach, like I did.
> _ Preface
Image see: Busnessweek 30 april 2006
9
> _ Preface
10
That same summer I got light of a game that wasn’t a game but more akin to a social network. It was called second life and was first introduced to me by my housemate, a French business student. For a converted technological determinist the platform promised, a way of life in which everyone was connected to a network as both creators and consumers. Here was a place I longed to be, some where else, a greener side of the valley. A place that I and my adopted values agreed was the best place to be. A world that would cut the middle man, the greedy corporate brands that stifled our individuality. It is and was a dry run, I believed for a future to come once the digital fabrication technologies where cheap enough for everyone to pop them into a toolbox. We would be like the people in second life - ‘content’ producers, liberated individuals free from the hierarchical manipulation by the state and corporations. Producing goods for our own consumption and sharing these with others in the network. We would become both produces and consumers, blurring the boundary between work and play, so I thought. On the other side of the coin was the capitalist mantra – “in the digital utopia, everybody will be both hip and rich.” [1] Both the web and indeed second life promised riches from the sale of virtual 'content' that the new digital residents are producing and off cause one was ‘hooked’. This was illustrated by the Business week cover of April 2006. [1] see: Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, The Californian ideology 1994.
> _ Preface
. right image second life world map (THE GRID) see: http://maps.secondlife.com/
> _ Preface > _ Preface
. Image by author Bongani Muchemwa 2011Muchemwa 2011 Image by author Bongani .
12
> _ Structure
13
Using the documentary fiction approach - documenting (theory, history and context of the subject) and fiction (accounting of micro narratives, accidents, events and observations), I will demonstrate how the ideology has shaped the virtual city state. The dissertation will be split into three chapters. Chapter one, Documentary - will chart the strange tale of virtual reality ascent as a technology used by the military during the cold war to its everyday use by civilians as a entertainment technology that enables video games and virtual worlds like secondlife.com. I will also discuss the history and context of the development of the technologies, showing the strange and paradoxical nature of the key ideas in this history that I believe have been encoded within the technology. Chapter two, Fiction- will discuss through first hand experience the ‘cyberpunkish’ conflicts and the strange banality of existence in SL. I chose to call this chapter ‘fiction’ as at close observation the synonyms of the word virtual are words like near, effectively, essentially, these words denote clearly the artificial nature of virtual worlds. They are not quite reality but they are 'close enough', hence ‘fiction’ as the heading of the chapter. However this can be misleading as every avatar has a person behind it. Yet users/residents may be displaying a different version of themselves whilst on second life, a ‘cyber’ version. This does not make any interaction false, on the contrary, what is fictional is the environment that has been rendered by ones and zeros through the internet, but the events and micro-narratives are lead by real and conscious human beings controlling their avatars. Chapter three - Conclusion.
14
UMUNTU 3 UMUNTU 1
Avi (see glossary) Alt avi (see glossary)
. Image by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
> _ Method
15
Chapter one will recall the history and context of the Californian ideology. To aid this I will employ the literature noted in the bibliography. I will also call upon witnesses to retell the history and context of the ideology in light of my hypothesis in one to one interview noted in the appendix (please see pages 83-91.) Chapter two will define, observe, and analyse the everyday life in second life- looking into its social structures to reveal the embed ideas that are synonymous with the Californian ideology. This will be done through participation in its markets, events and its dominant life script (that is when in Rome do as the Romans do). The method will closely resemble the method used by anthropologists to conduct ethnographic studies – conducting and sourcing surveys, participant observation and informal interviews. I will also use observations made by other scholars listed in the appendix where appropriate to enrich the investigation and also render a comprehensive study within the little time I have to complete the dissertation. My daily activities in second life will be filmed for later analysis; I will also edit the clips to produce a short film to be used by readers to paint a vivid picture of second life and my journey. I have also assigned two avatars for the task, Umuntu 1 and Umuntu 3.
Documentary
>_
Chapter 1
. Image by author Bongani Muchemw – Avatar Umuntu 1 in second life 20012
Chapter 1 1) The history and of context the Californian ideology 2) The history and context of virtual reality and virtual worlds conclusion
Chapter 1
a) History and context virtual reality and virtual worlds.
> _ History and context of virtual worlds
The terms Cyberspace, loosely describes the internet and virtual worlds in speculative fiction 16 of the 80s and 90s. However, the present version of the internet and virtual worlds should never be interchangeable, virtual worlds can be found on the internet or inside a games consol. And the internet its self is the womb in which all kinds and formats of information can be accessed including the virtual worlds of second life. However the word cyberspace could mean both of these entities, as a metaphor, it was first used to speculate the possibility of future network technologies in the 80s. The word was later formalised to describe the internet, as it went public in the 90s. It was "coined by the author William Gibson in his short story Burning Chrome (1982) and later popularized the notion in his first novel, Neuromancer (1984)."[1] “Cyberspace has a nice buzz to it’, said William Gibson, recalling his use o the term in his fiction, it’s something that an advertising man might have thought up.”[2] "Gibson’s cyberspace draws upon the notion of cybernetics that dates back to the midtwentieth - century work in computer science and engineering, above all the work of Norbert Weiner" whose work I will talk about in the next section.[3] Gibson and later Neal Stephenson with the novel Snow crush (1992) became cult figures in the mid 80s and early 90s, as they speculated the future existence of other worlds beyond our physical one; they showed readers worlds rendered by ones and zeros. Fiction gave the internet the sense that it could become “a place”/ “a landscape”/ “a space”. This gave the notion that these technologies could contain within them a vacuum that one could navigate through like a city or a landscape. In doing so they had envisioned virtual worlds although what they really wanted to was to give a sense of place in something as intangible as a internet network. In some way both authors got it wrong, they thought that cyberspace would be a 3 dimensional world and city like.
“Cyberspace… is now another part of the city” - William Gibson [4] [1] see: quoted on wikipidia.com also see William gibson Neuromancer 1984 also see: Benjamin Woolley, virtual worlds: 1992 Pg 123 -135. [2] see: ibid 123 [3] see: Tom Boellstroff coming of age in Second life. pg37-38 [4] see: quoted from William Gibson: The New Cyber/Reality an interview on The Agenda with Steve Paikin 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVEUWfDHqsU [5] see: Tom Boellstroff coming of age in Second life.2008 pg 91
This follows with “residents” of SL when they say that they are going “into second life”. Consequently, most scholars ague that second life may have been inspired by both the authors’ speculative novels. However it seems Gibson had anticipated the current addition of 'virtual places' on the internet, "a shift from a 2d web to a 3d web" as exemplified by virtual worlds like second life, Open Simulator and gaming environments like world of war craft.[5]
> _ History and context of virtual worlds
William Gibson "evaded the draft during the Vietnam War by immigrating to Canada in 1968, where he became immersed in the counterculture and after settling in Vancouver; eventually becoming a full-time writer."[6] "Gibson's early works are bleak, noir near-future stories about the effect of cybernetics and computer networks on humans-a combination of lowlife and high tech."[7] "In the novel Neuromancer, Cyber space its self is a luminous electronic universe, but one inhabited by potentially vicious anthropomorphised computer systems and dominated by large corporations. Tough computer savvy freelancers like the novel’s hero Case could “jack in” to this space-that is, they could wire themselves up and enter the electronic universe.“[8] For Gibson and Stephenson cyberspace conjured dystopia not utopia, their work did not "portray the rural American frontier, but the electronic undergirding of a dark hyper industrialised landscape."[9] "For the former communards of the 60s, working in high technology, Gibson’s vision of cyberspace held enormous appeal."[10] As proponents of the Californian ideology, "they defined cyberspace in terms of breathless futurism and capitalist hype.“[11] "They agued the idea of cyberspace allowed a geographically dispersed group of individual working on three dimensional imaging systems that artist and technologist Jaron Lanier named “virtual reality” - to re-imaging themselves as members of a coherent community collaborating on the construction of the future. This community had begun its work in 1960s, developing flight simulation gear for the air force. Its members had also “developed computer-assisted design (CAD) technology" at MIT’s research unit formally known as the Architecture machine group now the MIT media lab. [12] By the mid 80s Lanier had somewhat invented some of the most important aspects of VR. His team at Atari the creator of the early virtual world game Pong had set up the VPL to research and build head mounted goggles and data gloves for NASA and the US military.
[7] see: wikipidia.com, William Gibson also see Fred Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture 2006, pg160-163 [8] see: ibid [9] see: Fred Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture 2006, pg162 aslo see William Gibson Neuromancer 1984 [10] see: ibid pg 162 [11] see: ibid pg163 [12] see: ibid [13] see: ibid
Virtual reality enabled the building of virtual worlds of the near future, it is important to note that virtual reality and virtual worlds are different. The head sets and the other enabler technologies like simulation programs such as CAD programs are virtual reality but not virtual worlds. In other words Virtual reality is the interface between our perception and simulations or virtual worlds. These technologies were the precursor and enablers of virtual worlds, creators of these systems help to establish the architecture of video games which virtual worlds originate from.[13]
17
From war games to Video games to Virtual worlds
Image-U.S. Navy personnel using a VR parachute trainer :see: wikipidai.com under virtual reality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
> _ History and context of virtual worlds
19 However, "virtual reality may have popped into the headlines only in the past few decades, but its roots reach back further. In the 50s fear of nuclear attack prompted the U.S. military to commission SAGE, radar system that would process large amounts of information and immediately display it in a form that humans could readily understand. The resulting radar defence system was the first "real time, or instantaneous, simulation of data, and the earliest example of virtual reality.”[14] "The first emergence of a virtual world along the lines of second life most likely occurred in 1970 in the context of a project by Myron Krueger."[15] "One day, Krueger and colleague - working in two different buildings on the same university campus - were each looking at an image of a waveform at their computer displays. The waveform in question was part of a computer installation called Met play that projected the image of person on a wall coupled with computer graphics (so that, for instance, a person sitting on an empty floor might appear to besetting in a computer generated bathtub. In Artificial reality published in 1991 Krueger demonstrated how virtual worlds differ from telecommunications (or mass media more generally): where we usually think of telecommunications as being between two points …..two way-telecommunication between two places creates a third place consisting of information that is available to both communicating parties simultaneously." [16] [17]
[14] see: history of virtual reality : ww.archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/Cyberia/VETopLevels/VR.History.html [15] see :Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg33 [16] see: ibid [17] see: ibid pg 33 also see Myron Krueger, Artificial reality published in 1991 [18] see: ibid pg 33 also see Bruce sterling, the Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. 1992. pg 65 [19] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg also see Bruce sterling, the Hacker Crackdown: and Fred Turner from counterculture to Cyberculture 2006, pg141-174
While the presence of other ‘actors’ would be the precursor of massively multiplayer worlds which he termed “mega environments”. [18] The earliest virtual worlds emerged from work in simulators at VPL. However the contemporary virtual worlds of second life emerged independently from research in video games, although drawing from similar inspiration. [19]
> _ History and context of virtual worlds Games like pong realised in 1972 including space invaders created by two MIT students in the same year. These were not fully categorised as virtual worlds although they were the precursors of other graphical visual games that formed the “basic programming architecture for virtual worlds” like SL. [20] “Another significant development in the history of virtual worlds was the rise of The Sims, including SimCity in 1989, SimEarth 1990, SimLife, in 1992, SimFarm 1993 and SimAnt 1991” [21] “As the internet use began to spread beyond military and academic environments the first public bulletin boards were created in 1978” [22] These were the precursors of the massive multiplayer virtual worlds of the near future. Unlike video games these were not graphical or simulations. The pioneering platform was the former journalist and communard of the back to the land movement, Steward Brand’s WELL (whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link). The WELL was connected to the whole earth catalogue a magazine i will talk about in the next section. The primary users of the platform were located in the san Francisco bay area.[23] These systems had live chat futures like second life, they also had discussion boards how ever users could not log on at the same time. Essentially these were chat rooms and virtual communities and the precursors of virtual worlds. These soon gave way to new platforms that could let multi persons to interact online at once. The Multi-User Dimension and Multi-User Domain (MUDs) were entirely textual virtual worlds and did not use graphical representations. [24]
[20] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg 48 [21] see: ibid pag 49 [22] see:ibid pg also see Bruce sterling, the Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. 1992. pg 65 [23] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg also see Bruce sterling, the Hacker Crackdown: and Fred Turner from counterculture to Cyberculture 2006, pg141-74 [24] see:see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg 50-4 [25] see: ibid also see Fred Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture 2006, pg162-5 [26] see: ibid
In 1987 , "LucasFilms released Habitat, a two-dimensional simulation of Tokyo designed for use on the commodore 64 personal computer. It is generally known as “the very first networked virtual world in which there were people represented as avatars and who were able to communicate and form a virtual community". [25] It had many of the futures of Bulleting Boards and the WELL, such as text chatting and the general cyber sociality of the MUDs. It also introduced teleportation a new feature in virtual worlds, perhaps borrowed from both Gibson and Stephenson’s literature. This has become the dominant method of travel between places in contemporary virtual worlds such as secondlife.com. By the mid 90s and early 2000s the development of broadband internet and graphics hardware in computers saw the popularity of the ‘Sims online’, a shift and separation from gaming saw virtual worlds coming into their own, users could now take part in banal activities such as getting a job, buying and building a house, looking after children and so on becoming part of networked virtual worlds.[26]
20
21
image screenshot Habitat see wikipidia.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_(video_game)
Chapter 1 1) The history and of context the Californian ideology 2) The history and context of virtual reality and virtual worlds conclusion
Chapter 1 b) History and context Californian ideology.
> _ History and context of the Californian ideology
[1] see: Fred Turner, From counters culture to cyberculture Pg 2 [2] see: Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, California ideology 1994 [3] see: ibid [4] see: ibid [5] see: Fred turner from counterculture to cyber culture 2006 pg 215 [6] see : Film by Adam Curtis, All watched over by machines o love and grace: The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts 2011 BBC2 also see Magret Mead, Silent Sring 1962 [7] see: Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, California ideology 1994
"Throughout the early cold war era, a whole generation of Americans had found themselves facing a dilemma-while the economy flourished and career opportunities, especially in military-related and cybernetics - inspired bureaucracies, could not have been better, the general atmosphere was dominated by increasingly limited personal freedom and a looming “thick cloud of nuclear anxiety” of a conflict with the Soviet Union." [1] A group of radicals calling themselves hippies rose up to shape a new political and cultural territory to challenge the straight jacketed bureaucratic hierarchy of the military industrial complex. "The Radicals from the Bay Area pioneered the political outlook and cultural style of New Left movements across the world. “Breaking with the narrow politics of the post-war era, they launched campaigns against militarism, racism, sexual discrimination, homophobia, mindless consumerism and pollution. In place of the traditional left's rigid hierarchies, they created collective and democratic structures which supposedly prefigured the libertarian society of the future”.[2] "The stand off between governor Ronald Reagan’s armed police and hippies in May of 1969" seemed to divide America into two camps. The stand off had ushered in a rip in America’s political arena, one that would affect many avenues of America’s future and indeed the world in the following decades. "During the subsequent battle, one man was shot dead and 128 other people needed hospital treatment.“[3] "On one side of the barricades, Governor Reagan and his followers advocated unfettered private enterprise and supported the invasion of Vietnam. On the other side, the hippies championed a social revolution at home and opposed imperial expansion abroad.”[4] Even then, by 1967 more than 700 thousand hippies had made their way back to the land in search of an alternative way of living.[5] The movement had also coincided with a "new concern for the environment sparked by the author and biologist Rachael Carson’s book silent spring".[6] The hippies had not only claimed that they where pioneers of a new way of life but they had also become tree huggers, lovers of nature; they also pioneered the environmental movement. "They dreamt of 'ecotopia': a future California where cars had disappeared, industrial production was ecologically viable, sexual relationships were egalitarian and daily life was lived in community groups." [7]
22
> _ History and context of the Californian ideology
[8]
see: Fred Turner, From counters culture to cyberculture Pg 2
[9]
see Peter Dracker, Adventures of a bystander. 1994. pg 245
[10] see: ibid pg 245 [11] see: ibid [12] see: Richard Barbrook Imaginary Futures: From thinking Machines to the Global Village 2007 Pg 70 also see Norbert Wiener Cybernetics, Second Edition: or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine1965 [13] see: ibid Pg 75 [14] see: ibid [15]
see: ibid also see Marshall McLuhan, The Global Village: Transformations in World Life and Media in the 21st Century 1992
[16] see: Appendix and DVD interview with Richard Barbrook (2012) also see Marshall McLuhan, The Global Village: Transformations in World Life and Media in the 21st Century 1992
For most hippies the rejection of technology seemed to be the only way their radical new way 23 of life could be fulfilled. They were going to be one with nature, the grass and the trees. It might have seemed that all hippies were ‘anti-technology’. On the contrary, “even as they set out for the rural frontiers, the communards of the back to the land movement often embraced the collaborative social practice of the celebration of technology, and the ‘cybernetic’ rhetoric of mainstream military-industrial academic research.”[8] “Suddenly, in the 1960s, technology was seen as a human activity; formally it was always a ‘technical’ activity, carried out by god knows whom or what, presumably by ‘elves in the black forest’, technology moved from the wings of the stage of history to which “humanists” had considered it, and began to mingle freely with the actors and even, at times stealing the spotlight.”[9] "Arch-technologist Buckminster fuller and Marshall McLuhan, respectively seer of 'synergetic geometry' and metaphysician of 'electronic media' “became counter cultural heroes as they gave technology a “humanist flavour” and that some how technology and humanity could be one.”[10] Despite being a middle-aged catholic English professor, “McLuhan preached the radical message that the power of big business and big government would be imminently overthrown by intrinsically empowering effects of new technology on individuals.”[11] McLuhan had been educated in his home land of Canada and later at Cambridge, raising to prominence in the 70s in America and even playing himself in a Woody Allen film. However since his death, in the 80s, McLuhan’s work and ideas have almost been forgotten by mainstream academia and the media. Although having influenced many in advertising and media technology - particularly Jaron Lanier the inventor of the head mounted virtual head sets. In the 50s "McLuhan’s intellectual transformation was aided by the gift of a book: Wiener’s “Cybernetics”. “For the first time, he realised that the computer wasn’t just a digital calculator, but also a communications device.”[12] “Like many of his peers, McLuhan was convinced that this new technology had created a new theoretical paradigm."[13] “Since printing had created modern society, McLuhan was convinced that the advent of the electronic media marked the next break boundary in human history.”[14] In his book ‘The Global village’ “technological convergence of television, satellites and computers into the net would- at the same time - create a single social system for the whole of humanity and restore the intimacy of living in a tribal community.”[15] McLuhan’s idealism said "we are moving from the printed word” that had divided humans into individuals and specialists to a “connected consciousness” via electronic media. [16]
> _ History and context of the Californian ideology
[17] see: Appendix and DVD interview with Richard Barbrook (2012) [18] see: ibid
Reading McLuhan one could almost be forgiven to think that “technology was social change” not a mediator of social change, as in the famous phrase the "medium is the massage."[17] In this he meant that in every era of technological change a new medium is created and that changes our social relations by the “mere process of using the medium”.[18] So content was irrelevant, or even political and social issues that maybe be aired in these technologies were also irrelevant. In technological progress our societies are therefore automatically “bettered”. [19] In “The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man” (1962) McLuhan laid out what he termed a technological "extension of consciousness", with this he had in some sense "predicted the internet 30 years before it was invented".[20][21] While Fuller had in earlier years been a cold war intellectual. He had invented the geodesic dome, a structure that became the symbol for countercultural housing, while the military had used it to house new SAGE radar “installations in the arctic”.[22] He had coined the phrase comprehensive designer an “emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist.”[23] This individual would reject the mainstream technocratic society but hack and re-use selected technology for his/her self sufficiency. At the advent of the hippie movement the communalist had identified with both intellectuals. While Fuller's call for ‘collaborative self sufficiency’ was a way to re-inventing society for most hippies. However, the communalists had no means at that time of organising and documenting, distributing these technologies and his thoughts among the scattered communes scattered around Amarica’s country side.[24]
[19] see: ibid also see Imaginary Futures from thinking Pg 72 [20] see: ibid also see Marshall McLuhan In The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man” 1962 [21] see: quoted at wikipidai.com also see Levinson, Paul (1999). Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium [22] see; Film by Adam Curtis All watched over by machines o love and grace: The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts 2011 bbc2 [23] see: Buckminster fuller, “Ideas and Integrities”, p. 173, 176 Quoted in Fred turner, From Counterculture to cyberculture, 2006, p. 56 [24] see: Film by Adam Curtis, All watched over by machines o love and grace: The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts 2011 bbc2 [25] See Film by Lutz Dammbeck, The Net: The Unabomber, LSD and the Internet (2003) [26]Max Schulz, Whole Earth Discipline: an ecopragmagamtist manifestos Stewart Brand 2009. http://www.washingtontimes.com [27] see John Downing, Radical Media, Boston 1984. quoted in Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, California ideology 1994
One day in 1968, while high on LSD, the journalist, biologist and entrepreneur Steward Brand had the idea to start a catalogue documenting the inventions and ideas of both Buckminster fuller and Marshall McLuhan respectively.[25] The whole earth catalogue was to be the bible for the communalists; it had instructions on how to build geodesic domes, beekeeping and repairing Volkswagens, advice on building furniture and cultivating marijuana, along with celebrations of communal life and swipes at big government, big business and a technocratic society. [26] “Armed with Fuller’s “rhetoric and Encouraged by McLuhan's predictions, West Coast radicals became involved in developing new information technologies for the alternative press, community radio stations, home-brew computer clubs and video collectives. These community media activists believed that they were in the forefront of the fight to build a new America. The creation of the electronic agora was the first step towards the implementation of direct democracy within all social institutions." [27]
24
> _ History and context of the Californian ideology
25
So where exactly did the ‘networked and collaborative society’ rhetoric come from, and what is ‘cybernetics’ one may ask?
[28] see: Fred turner, From counter culture to cyber culture 2006. Pg 27 [29] see: ibid [30] see: Lecture by Richard Barbrook talking at virtual Futures 2010 (Imaginary futures: the future is what it used to be) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D4MVrqjav4 [31] see: Wikipedia for definition
In the 1950s “The SAGE (semi-automatic Ground Environment) defence project, for example, began as an attempt to establish an early warning system against the soviets bombers armed with nuclear weapons. SAGE was based at MIT; “involved a complex range of military industrial and academic players and organised its work in a highly collaborative fashion.” [28] “Far from implementing a rigid command hierarchy, the managers of SAGE coordinated the project’s many elements through distributed interdisciplinary meetings." [29] SAGE was a global network of radar systems connected to gigantic computers in America; the system was created to craft a stable balance in the nuclear stand off of the cold war. It was also an early alliteration of the internet, while the later alliterations o the internet, as Dr Barbrook suggests were created to beat the Soviets in the "race to build the internet" and somehow “own the future”. "The soviets were trying to build the internet so they could effectively manage their centralised economy; governance and in some way democratise communism."[30] SAGE had been built on a thread theory developed from ‘cybernetics’ called system dynamics. Cybernetics from a Greek word meaning "the art of steering" - The art and science of governance [31]
> _ History and context of the Californian ideology
[32] see: Sascha Pohflepp, The Valley and the Sky: California’s technology culture between idealism, business and futures for design 2008, Royal collage of Art, pg9 also see Norbert wiener, Cybernetics or the control and communication in the animal and machine 1961 [33] see: ibid [34] see: Fred turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture 2006, pg. 21 [35] see: ibid [36] see: ibid also see Film by Lutz Dammbeck, The Net: The Unabomber, LSD and the Internet (2003) [37] see: ibid [38] see: quoted Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace: the use and abuse of vegitational concepts, BBC 2011 [39] see: ibid also see Buckminster Fuller Operating manual for space ship earth 1968 [41] see: ibid also see see: quoted Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace: the use and abuse of vegitational concepts, BBC2 documentary 2011 42 see: ibid
Cybernetics was theorised by "two scientists Norbert Wiener and Julian Bigelow in 1948 at 26 MIT“. The theory was developed to "work out the mathematical problems related to tracking and shooting down planes with anti-aircraft systems." The approach was to "develop a theory, rather than an algorithm, for all actors involved, from a somewhat unusual angle.“ [32] Wiener and Bigelow "imagined actors the gunner pointing the gun and the gun as machines, they are operating as a system, or even more radical, a system in which biological and mechanical parts are acting on the same level." [33] The gunner and the gun as one and the same. "In Cybernetics they argued for what we now see as classic “systems approach” everything can be described as a system, broken down into “black box” components with inputs and outputs, and then understood using the ideas of information flow, noise, feedback, stability, and so on." [34] In doing so, “they offered their contemporaries a metaphor with which essentially the whole world could be modelled as a network of mechanical information processors” [35] What began to emerge in the 50s and 60s was the thought that cybernetics could explain everything from society, computer networks, cities, war, human interactions and even nature as ecosystems. In fact this was a considered effort that tried to unite the sciences through the new paradigm of cybernetics in a number of 'Macy conferences' in 1946 -1953 held in New York by the Warren McCulloch and the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.[36] Scientists like Margaret Mead a cultural anthropologist, John von Neumann; a pioneering influence in cybernetics, mathematics and computer science of the 20th century, Gregory Bateson an anthropologist, social scientist to mention but a few including Wiener and Bigelow met to plot concepts of this new paradigm. [37] However, “cybernetics saw human beings not as individuals in charge of their own destiny but as components in systems. In this perspective there was no difference between human beings and machines they where just nodes in networks.” [38] "Acting and reacting in flows of information." [39] Using cybernetics Buckminster Fuller laid out a new form of co-existing, a new way of life without the political hierarchies of the past" in his book “Operating manual for space ship earth.”[40] Just as network systems the communes would be leaderless, rather they would ‘self organise’ and become “an organisation of many who act as one.” [41] Mean while the “hippie engineers of the home brew computer club in the west cost believed that the communes were only a prototype of this self organising networked society, they believed that in the future computers will be able to recreate the communes but on a global scale”, everyone could be free as individuals not dominated by the old hierarchies and controlled politically. Instead they would be “linked together in a global system of personal computers”. [42]
> _ History and context of the Californian ideology
“As a socialist pacifist”, Weiner later renounced his work with the military at M.I.T after realising the threat that technology posed to men especially of nuclear annihilation. [43] While In 1954 Wiener’s book, The Human Use of Human Beings he warned “that the role of technology under capitalism was to intensify the exploitation of workers. Instead of increasing leisure time and improving living standards, the computerisation of the economy under Fordism would increase unemployment and cut wages." [44] In the 80s and 90s McLuhan's “long predicted convergence of telecommunication and computing echoed the beginnings of the new economy.” [45] This was the Reagan-Thatcher era, and ‘deregulation’ was in the air and the spectre of ‘neoliberal economics’ was sweeping the globe. The meeting of the new left and the new right rendered the emergence of the Californian ideology. "Soon after publishing the last whole earth Catalogue Steward Brand wrote about the computer scene, helping to create the 'Whole Earth software catalogue' and in 1985, he became the founder of the Well- the Whole Earth Letronic link - a pioneering online community. As it turned out Brand once explained, “psychedelic drugs, communes and Buckminster Fuller domes were a dead end, but computers were an avenue to realms beyond our dreams” by the 90’s those realms were celebrated by the magazine Wired" a tech magazine that he helped to establish with fellow ex-communalists Kevin Kelly. [46] Strangely, in the late 80s and 90s Wired began to publish right wing ideologues. How could have this happened?
[43] see: Appendix and DVD interview with Richard Barbrook (2012) [44] see: Richard Barbrook, imaginary Futures pg 60 also see Norbert wiener ,The Human Use of Human Beings 206-221 also see Norbert wiener, Cybernetics pg 36-39. [45] see: Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, California ideology 1994 [46] see: Edward Rothstein, A Crunchy-Granola Path From Macramé and LSD to Wikipedia and Google, the New York times 2006 Also see Max Schulz, Whole Earth Discipline: an ecopragmagamtist manifestos Stewart Brand 2009. [47] see: Adam Curtis, The Trap - What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom F*k you buddy BBC2
After all these where the same people at governor Regan’s side at people park’s in the 60s. The new right emerged from the remerging of liberalism often called neoliberalism, among America's conservatives, as well among Britain’s Tories just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the 70s and 80s. Since the end of the world war America had adopted a regulated state planned economy, which involved a political collaboration between industry and government often referred to as ‘Fordism’. This had been seen as a solution to avoid the economic chaos of the great depression in the 1930s. The economist Fredrick Hayek had been one of the influential writers for Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government. While Milton Friedman from the Chicago school of economics had influenced the new right in America. Hayek had fled the Nazis during the world war in this homeland of Austria and had warned that “state planning was going to lead the west to totalitarianism and the end of freedom as Soviets had done under Stalin…In their search for utopia through state planning the Soviets had ended up in a tyrannical dictatorship.” [47]
27
> _ History and context of the Californian ideology
To avoid what he called “The road to serfdom." Hayek proposed the west go back "to a golden edge of free markets where government played no part in the economy and individuals where freed to pursue their own selfish gains. Out of this Hayek said a self organising system would emerge." [48] While the author and philosopher Aryan Rand had fled Russia in the 1930s settling in California and later in New York. In the late 70s and 80s she became one of the most influential writers within the business world of the ‘new economy’, advocating "unfettered private enterprise."[49] She had said: “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged [50] Her philosophy called Objectivism inspired a whole generation of right wingers and even lefties in Silicon Valley and beyond. Other followers include Allen Greenspan the Chairman of the Federal Reserve for the Reagan administration. [51] She wrote best sellers such as Atlas shrugged, the virtues of selfishness and the Fountain head. The radical individualist thread followed a fever pitch hate of the state. Both Rand and her followers agued that one can never be an individual if government impose restriction for one’s creativity, therefore politicians should not interfere and let the 'markets and individuals decide'. [52] Along those lines the new Right and new left had a common ground, lefties had left civilisation in the 60s escaping the tyranny of the state’s hierarchy.
[48] see: ibid also see Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom 1944
The meeting of historically desperately opposite sides of political viewpoints may have been a paradox, both sides may have been anti-statists but this does not follow that they should have agreed in other arenas. The leftists were for collectivism while the right saw collectivism as immoral, a plague that stifles individuals and creativity.
[49] see: Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, California ideology 1994 Aslo see Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace: Love and power, BBC 2011, [50] see:ibid also see quote on wikipidia.com aslo also see Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged 1957 pg1170–1171 [51] see:ibid [52] see: ibid also see Adam Curtis, The Trap - What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom F*k you buddy BBC2 [53] see: Fred Turner," George Gilder” Quoted in Counterculture to Cyberculture , pg. 224
In the 80s and 90s right wing tech pundits such as George Gilder began to publish their ideas in wired in praise of young tech entrepreneurs that were emerging. George Gilder had argued that: “the internet might be both a metaphor for a libertarian, free-market system and a sign of that system's inevitability, implying that a future system in which only the market rules by natural law and a society of technology-empowered entrepreneurs has replaced the need for governance altogether: “If you’re a winner, you don't go to the government.” [53]
28
> _ History and context of the Californian ideology Both sides began to come to a consensus on belief that "computer networks could measure, control and self-stabilise societies, without hierarchical political control, and that people could become 'Randian heroes', only working for their own happiness."[54] On the left this Rhetoric conjured nostalgic memories of Fuller’s cybernetic rhetoric that Steward Brand had so enthusiastically preached in the whole earth catalogue and other publications such as Computer Lib. For some ex-communalists the free market was a metaphor for a self organising community. Just as cybernetics had explained nature as ecosystems also meaning that they were self organising systems, markets were therefore natural and thus good.[55] By the late 90s brand and some ex communalists had formed the Global Business Network, offering companies and governments business planning services using cold war simulation techniques. So the archetypal person i call the ‘Hip Yuppie’ emerged, from the mid to late 80s to the 90s these Californian ideologues, siblings of both hippie techno-culture and yuppie capitalism and their products where enjoying vast financial backing from Wall Street and even the government. Most of their products emerged from the Virtual communities like the WELL that Brand the ex hippies had pioneered. Companies such as Google, MySpace Facebook.com and secondlife.com came out from the WELL and the networking, cybernetic ideas of both the military and the new left's ‘McLuhanist’ technological determinism.
[54] see: Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace: Love and power, BBC documentary 2011 [55] see: ibid also see Fred turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture 2006, pg. 21also see Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, California ideology 1994, also see Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace: Love and power, BBC documentary 2011
29
> _ conclusion
30 It seems as if the potential ‘goodness’ of networked social platforms whether it be the internet or games and virtual worlds online keep coming back decade after decade, and the message is always the same: starting in the late 50s then the 60s, 70s and 80s up to today. My point here is that, by these messages being recycled it is as if cyberspace as a technology it’s self is running some kind of a cybernetic process in which in every decade a feedback loop is run and these gizmos, time after time seem to infiltrate our everyday lives becoming more pervasive and at times intrusive. So in the late 50s and 60s a few people used the internet mainly in the military and academic complexes. While in the 80s, hackers - Geeks and Nerds, ex-communards and Californian techno-libertarians made up the major consumers of the internet, with such sites as the WELL, chart rooms and MUDs making up to 10% of the traffic. The dot com boom of the 90s spread the internet and networked communications platforms into American homes and the western world. While in the early 2000s the rise of virtual worlds such as the Sims, and gaming platforms such as World of War craft not to forget Facebook, MySpace and twitter have infiltrated most of our lives in the western world and increasingly in the developing ones. Taking another page from McLuhan’s rhetoric, I would add that we are all now "involved” in cyberspace and "we are with it".[56]
[56] see: Norman Mailer & Marshall McLuhan Debate the Electronic Age, CBC telesion 1968 [57] see: Benjamin Woolley, virtual worlds: 1992 Pg9. [58] see:Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg 207 [59] see: William Gibson lecture: The Decline of "Cyberspace, Chicago Humanities Festival 2011. [60] Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, California ideology 1994 also see ibid Howard Rheingold The Virtual Community
In contrast to McLuhan's collectivist rhetoric, “the computing industry was built on liberal belief in the individual as the only legitimate political entity, and Virtual reality has, in some hands, been promoted as the ultimate embodiment of that principle. What better way of expressing your individualism than by creating your own, individual reality? Empowered by the personal computer, liberated by virtual reality, the individual becomes the God of his own universe." [57] This follows with second life's slogan "your world your imagination", reflecting the various narratives in the Californian ideology and its promises.[58] However the time magazine cover entitled "person of the year is YOU: yes you. You control the information age welcome to your world", it somewhat compounded to this widespread belief that in virtual worlds we are indeed liberated individuals. although the hippie communes failed in the late 60s and 70s, For the ‘ex back to lenders’ in silicon valley the communes would live on in cyberspace and they would become 'free individuals'. In selling the world this idea, cyberspace would be "California ripped" large to extend the public sphere of which ever nation that could have a population that can afford to access the various versions of the "electronic agora" -from the internet to secondlife.com. [59][60]
> _ conclusion
Image: You — Yes, You — Are TIME's Person of the Year By Lev Grossman Monday, Dec. 25, 2006 See: http://www.time.com
31
> _ conclusion
[60] see: :ibid [61] see: ibid [62] see: ibid also see Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace: Love and power, BBC documentary 2011 [62] see: ibid [63] see:. Richard Barbrook Imaginary Futures: From thinking Machines to the Global Village 2007 Pg 274 also see declaration o independence quoted on wikipidia.com
In some way the slogan “your world your imagination" should be changed to "your world your California". For residents of second life in the U.K and other countries outside America, these ideas and their history are alien and foreign. However, the "members of the ‘virtual class’ can play at being cyberpunks within hyper reality without having to meet any of their impoverished neighbours, alongside the ever-widening social divisions, another apartheid is being created between the ‘information rich’ and ‘information poor'. In this high tech ‘Jeffersonian democracy’ the difference between master and slaves endures in a new form" [61]. For the thoroughly impoverished, access is denied, while for the residents, their leisurely creative activity is a source of huge revenues for the owners of these virtual worlds. It seems the conflict at People's Park in 1964 for a America's political future in which it seemed only one side could win, decades later, paradoxically gave birth to the 'Hip Yuppie', the Californian “Randian heroes” who in the 80s had been given the task to build the "electronic agora."[62] Yet the unlikely meeting of the new left and new right re-invigorated the neo-liberal rhetoric of America’s founding fathers, this time remixed and the prefix cyber with the capital C added on. When the American revolutionaries finally won their nation’s independence, the principles of liberalism were enshrined in the constitution of the new republic: minimal government, the rule of law and laissez faire economics. Thomas Jefferson - the drafter of American declaration of independence and third US president - took pride that the united states was a nation where ‘…….wise and frugal government which shall restrain people from injuring one another shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement”[63] The new Cyber neo-liberal rhetoric of what emerged from hippie cybernetics and the right wing ‘fetishisation’ of capitalism, has in second life created a state with it's own currency and economy. Consequentially second life is not a commune but the ideal neoliberal state with a tendency for exploitation to match and with arguably frictionless free markets, small to no formal governance as we shall discover in the next chapter.
32
33
>_
Fiction
. Image by author Bongani Muchemw – Avatar Umuntu 1 in second life 20012
Chapter 2
Chapter 1 1) The history and of context the Californian ideology 2) The history and context of virtual reality and virtual worlds conclusion
Chapter 2 a) Place making – land, architecture landscapes, community and the self.
34
Second life is a foreign a country, its linguistic idioms, its architecture and urbanism are alien, strange and often beguiling. It is foreign but familiar. When I first logged into second life in 2007. The last thing I expected was the sense of community and even a sense of place within the different 'Sims' that I visited. Just like a town or city I found familiar activities such as bars, hotels, squares, gardens, parks, homes and even sporting arenas.
[1] see: appendix or stat , sourced at LindenX.com [2] see: ibid [3] see: Philip Rosedale talks about the virtual society he founded, Second Life at TED.com 2008.
Some people have been known to spend up to 300 hours a month in developing a life with in secondlife.com.[1] Collectively participating in an economy that accounts for US$26million annually.[2] Over the decade there has been a sizable rise in the popularity of virtual communities of which second life is the largest one. The virtual space it's self “has about 250 thousand people per day wondering around in there and nearly a million people logging in every month to live an alternative life. The space itself is about 10 times the size of San Francisco and it's about as densely built out." [3] One might say it is a sizable crumb of cyberspace and perhaps a microcosm of a networked 'techno-utopia'.
35
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
Welcome to SL’s LONDON SOHO
A typical session in SL
36 I arrived in Soho London at around 4 am p.d.t or Pacific Daylight Time, as much as Greenwich is the centre of time out here in the real world hence we use G.M.T reflecting Britain’s imperial past and Naval dominance in the 17 and 18 century. However, the pacific bay area of California is the centre of world in Second Life, this also suggests that I had arrived in a simulation or ‘sim’ rendered by a server, located somewhere in California. Meanwhile it was approaching midday in real life England and SL's London looked orange sunny, a scene that one only witnesses once or twice in a good summer or never. I felt the need to add some authenticity so I simply altered the angle of the sun to resemble the mediocre summers experienced by many in real London at times. Soho, London is a place Owned and managed by a virtually married couple Billy Arentire and Torric Rodas. I landed in a square full of other people or their digital personas known as avatars, everyone here calls these beings 'avis'. I had used the quickest mode of public transport, teleportation. It’s not always reliable when one has few bars on their network icon, but it beats flying, another power that these avis have. However, flying is not an effective mode of transport when trying to navigate one’s way from place to place. I usually got lost over second life’s vast ocean. However by running this operation on one’s keyboard, pressing Ctrl then M, one could summon a map of the world or a local map. And by clicking on any point on the map one’s ‘avi’ would be teleported to that specific ‘place’. I had come to Soho to do some shopping and more field work, an ‘avi’ that I meet in SL’s most popular pub located in Dublin had advised me to come here because Soho had ‘Freebies’- Shops that give away goods for free, perhaps to lure punters. However not everything in Soho is free off cause. Looking around the square right behind the two avis dancing to some club music, ‘there it was’- the London Tower Bridge. This was not the London I knew, surely the bridge is not next to Soho, and further more the bridge seemed not to be connecting any land masses together. Looking around the square, I started speculating, about who these people were behind the avatars. The freakishly tall male 'avi' on my right could be a woman or a man, on my left a voluptuous female ‘avi’ with her chest set on extreme dancing along could be a 40 year old man. A squirrel dancing to the loud club music could be someone’s husband, mother, sister or brother. I had been told that some people spend their time in SL as other avatars' children, or even pets, these people I was surprised to find out are paid to play such roles.
A typical session in SL Behind the 'mic' on the ‘sims’ radio could be someone’s brother who is earning over £500 a mouth as a D.J in different ‘sims’. Above all I was struck by how attractive every one was, in a strangely cartoonish way, the male avis where 6 feet 5 and over, dark, with bulging muscles, while the female avis where petite, young damsels with bulging bosoms and long flowing hair. Behind us was a ‘freebie shop’(see glossary) owned by the 'sim’s' owners as I was told, Just outside on the door way there was a sign that said “email me IF YOU WANT A JOB”. Below the sign there was an ATM machine that gave out Linden dollars (the official virtual currency in SL) - on request it could make available thousands of linden dollars via one’s real life pay pal or bank account. On my far left across the road there was a pub and just out side a couple were swinging side to side in a warm embrace, again I thought to myself, the man could be woman or they could both be men and no one could be the wiser. On some occasions have been asked if I was a boy or girl when ever I was using my 'alt avi', umuntu 1, the grey rabbit (see introduction). This I felt was my contribution to the observable blurring of gender and identity not only in second life but through out cyberspace. Walking over to the pub on the side of the door there was a newspaper stand, and in there were virtual copies of the local newspaper, it had a combination of real life and virtual stories and it included adverts for a real life electronics company, club events in other Sims, a virtual university offering online classes and so on. The day before I had visited a skybox bar called Skank Hole, it's a place that floats in mid air above a residential 'sim'. Upon arriving via teleportation I immediately realised this place allowed residents to use microphones to speak to each other. I spoke to the owner of the bar and her friends. It looked like they where busy rearranging outdoor furniture. She lamented bout how popular her bar used to be a few years ago and how her 'dwell count' (the number of new visitors) had fallen. She sounded English although some of her friends had an american accent. She expressed how she wanted the place to look different from other places so she can get more people coming round as her dwell had fallen from 20 per day to 7, she said. Not counting the friends that surrounded her while she was re-decorating the place, one friend seemed to disappear, only to appear a few minutes later with more furniture for her friends bar.
36
37
. Image by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
->A typical session in SL
. Image by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
38
A typical session in SL
. Image by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012 at Skank Hole
40
>Terms of discussion
[3] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg 243 [4] see: ibid pg 94
41
Place or ‘Sim’? Is second life a place or simulation? This is a very significant question, at this point of the dissertation. It is important to sow the seeds of reality into a subject that is loosely fictional. However the narratives that are played out in SL are directed by conscious human beings as I argue in the introduction. All the dimensions of what many residents refer to simultaneously as simulation and place need unpacking if a critical study of these spaces and later a political landscape is to occur. So reality and simulation need to be at least identified, although it might be a difficult task since place and simulation are interlinked through the processes of their creation and inhabitation as observed in the short piece of narrative exploring a typical daily experience in second life. So what I intend to explore are the notions of place much more than the notions of simulation. Place tends to reality while simulation has more to do with the replication of ideas and certain realities. For example the buildings, squares and roads have been created to loosely resemble those that can be found in the real Soho - ultimately it’s a pervasive idea. The Tower Bridge adds to the 'London-ness', the arbitrary bridge is an icon, a symbol for one to be convinced that they are indeed in London. Therefore Second life is a simulation at that level. The notions of place have to do with enshrining these icons or symbols with meaning. The notions of meaning come about from simple principle that "SL’s worlds are imagined and owned by residents." [3] However, this notion "that Linden lab had proudly proclaimed had disappeared by 2007" as Professor Boellstroff points out, "since the issues of ownership are much more complicated than that, yet it is true that less than one percent of second life's places were created by linden lab". [4]
>Terms of discussion
However since Linden Labs owns the servers in which these places are located, this 42 somehow complicates the issues of ownership and perhaps meaning. It might be said that ownership and meaning are simulated but it’s easy to observe the pride that residents of second life have in creating these places. An obvious example is the owner of Skank Whole’s efforts in redecorating her bar to increase her dwell count, given that this has the effect of improving her social status within second life, although Linden Labs gave out “cash incentives for high dwell” counts during professor Boellstroff field work. The point here is that such notions as ownership and social status adds a veneer of authenticity to what is effectively a construct devised by ones and zeros. [5] So for example the study of Soho's collective notions of place such as :place as the urban space, place as a community and so on. This can illuminate the meaning enshrined in its icons and perhaps shed light on the way these places are occupied and created ideologically. However, the notions of simulation are frankly banal but they can be a window to the traces of ideology that one is trying to reveal. The unpacking of these notions of place and simulation are best illustrated by the drawing Fig 1 on the next page. Definition: Place The term ‘place’ refers to a particular position, point, or area in space; a location (oxford dictionary.) [6]
[5] see: see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg95 [6] see: oxforddictionaries.com [7] see: Jonathan Meades: Abroad Again Father to the Man 2007 bbc 2
Place, in the western tradition is not an abstract entity as the definition may suggests. It is a dish with component that make places, rivers, grass fields, meadows, ponds street scarps, parks, wide verges, buildings, sunken lanes, hidden allies, high roads and the nameless bits between them all, especially those bits. [7] All these painstakingly re-created by the ‘residents’ of second life. So a collection of these creations make an urban space, which in turn when occupied creates a community and so on. With any community which is authentic the differentiation of these architectonic and landscape elements creates place and place has identity. So ‘sim’ A or village A looks different from 'sim' B or village B due to the differentiation of these elements. This creates an 'us and them effect' between village or ‘Sim’ A and B, as these elements are given meaning and significant through their arrangement, since everything that we see in the real world and also the virtual is ultimately cultivated by man. Even those that are given up to god like rivers and forests, ultimately at some point man intervene and alter for his/her gains. Therefore place has an intimate connection with man through the process of creation and inhabitation. Place is therefore again defined as a social space, a community, a personal space, as architecture and the urban, as a commodity for food or water.
>Terms of discussion FIG 1
Linden labs (core organising principles)
Avatars (residents)
economy Notion of place
Communities
Social networks Occupy and Organised
(friends and acquaintances ) Organisations
$L (exchange of virtual goods)
Layers and typologies
Notions of Simulation
(Roads, buildings, Bridges, trees, Squares ‌‌..)
Whole sims up to the (main Grid)
Building on land Bought from Linden labs
Cybernetics (self organisation) Neo liberalism Ideology the Californian ideology
(Free markets)
( connectivity)
Libertarianism (freedoms of expression)
Radical Individualism New right (Jeffersonian Libertarian Randian heroes)
. FIG 1 Diagram by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
Anti - hierarchy
+
Hacker culture (DIY)
McLuhanism
New left (hippie communards )
Land (proxy for servers provided by LLab)
>Terms of discussion Definition: Simulation The term simulation refers to the imitative representation of the functioning of one system or process by means of the functioning of another (Merriam -Webster) [8] The word simulation suggests that something has been made to be like something else. If something is “forever like something it can never be it’s self.”[9] However, visits to other regions of second life show a vast variety of Sims, some are recreations of potion of real places and some are conjured from the resident’s imagination. Unlike the matrix in which man is kept in a hallucination or rather a simulation, perhaps second life simulates the processes that enable man to create places, his interventions can re-route rivers and streams, in other words man can engineer place. In his book coming of age in second life Professor Boellstroff suggests that Second life "does not prioritise simulation or mirror reality but assumes individuals can create their own reality." [10] However fundamentally, the idea of place is central in rendering an immersive or convincing experience in second life. The notion of place in second life is ultimately cooked and its ingredients are a mixture of pseudo architecture, landscape and urbanism. Cooked in the right way this terrain can become a possibility space for various narratives to be written or culture to develop. In some sense these spaces exist as both places and simulation, while the simulation exists at the level of the process of creation and place making. If what is being simulated is the process of place-making, then what are these processes? Could it be that what is being simulated is the idea of man as a creator of his own world, a man as a ‘Randian hero’, a creative, whose world is liberal to match his need and wants for an individualised place. In one of the Californian ideology reference texts - the novel “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand, John Galt is such a man. “He perseveres to achieve his values, even when his ability and independence leads to conflict with others.” [11] Like Buckminster Fuller’s comprehensive designer (see previous chapter) Galt is acknowledged to be a creator, philosopher, and inventor who symbolises the power and glory of the human mind. After all ‘your world is your imagination’.
[8] see: Merram-webster.com [9] see: Jonathan Meades remember the future bbc2 1997 [10] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg95 [11] see: who is John Galt, qouted at wikipidia.com also see Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged 1957
44
>_ Observations and analysis
[12] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg98
45
Place as the Self - building my imagination Following advice from a number of acquaintances that I talked to about building my own space, I rented a piece of land from an estate agent, and proceeded to build a house. I must say that the house remained unfinished for the duration of my tenancy. While I simply deleted what ever efforts I had made mostly due to frustration about what to build. As an ambitious young architect I thought I could redefine what a living space should be like in cyberspace, since my ‘avi’ did not need shelter as real human beings do. I thought I could do something that did not look like my neighbours efforts, which I should add where horrible attempts at virtual architecture. However the experience of building gave some insight in how one in some sense gains some form of purpose or reason to remain a resident of second life, despite a growing social network of friends and acquaintances during that time. Building can be a solitary activity although I found my self increasingly discussing with new acquaintances about the processes of building. Second life only allows one to build on land that has been rented or purchased. Although one is able to build short term builds in what is known as sand boxes, these are normally public lands freely available for one to practice their building skills. Although any creations placed in these sand boxes are short lived, and were often deleted by linden lab to make way for more. Building is enabled by a freely available 3 dimensional modelling program that one can only activate on owned land as well as the sandbox islands. The modelling program allowed one to use primitive forms known as prims : cones, cubes and so on to build just about anything, from buildings to hair. Textures can “be applied to a combination of these prims to make a surface for example look like it has been built out of bricks or wood. Textures exemplified the implicit visual economy of surfaces in second life: meaning was located primarily on the surface of objects. Prims could also have “scripts” or computer programs, placed inside them, written in a programming language internal to second life, LSL (linden scripting language)" [12]
> Observations and analysis However, “some residents were homeless because they did not like building as they saw no 46 benefit in owning property; others were homeless because they could not afford to own virtual land. Those without property had limited possibilities for building if they belonged to a group that owned land in common."[13] One acquaintance pointed out that SL "can be fun without building" although my own experience in building added meaning and a level of interest and engagement. Since the investment in money and time for the opportunity to build meant my existence in second life had a level of purpose than earlier on. I rented a piece of land for two months at 650 lindens dollars per week, equivalent of £10 an month. Since Linden Labs did not impose zoning regulations, a topic that I will cover shortly, new ideas and experiments in imposing rules on building were introduced during professor Boellstroff fieldwork in 2007 and 2008 called covenants. Linden lab gave some powers to landlords to impose zoning guidelines, which often included prohibitions on billboards, spinning sings in the air, and building out to property lines, as well as limits on building heights. These guidelines worked to protect the visual field, yet often resulted in what was disparaged “as endless suburban sprawl” [14] Although this was a kind of distribution of power down to the residents, at least landowners, I felt this might be an undemocratic practise. My rented land came with a covenant and that advised me to build sensibly and not to build beyond my allocated parcel. While it did not advise me what I could build, how and specifically where I could build on the land. For that reason one of my neighbours built his house in mid air. The convent was intended to prevent miscommunications and conflicts between neighbours. [15]
[13] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg98 [14] ibid 93 [15] Second life Terms of Service at secondlife.com, qouted on wikipidia.com aslo see secondlifewiki.com
47 COVENANT ---> Tier must be paid on time, if the rent box is in arrear, you could lose the land, so is better don t wait the last days or hours to pay the rent. ---> Tier is transferable but not refundable, this mean that if you are leaving your land you won t be refunded, but if you want to upgrade to a bigger parcel, the value of your old rent will be moved into the new rent box. For example, if you have 4 weeks on a 4096 sqm and you are upgrading to a 8192 sqm, 2 weeks will be moved on the new land, only whole days are calculated and you have to pay at least 1 week on the new land to record the rent box in your name. ---> All lands are Residential and Commercial, this mean that you can live and have your business as well in the same land ---> The land cannot be deeded in your own group, but if you need more people with the rights we will send the rights to all residents you need ---> Respect your neighbours (shouting objects are not allowed) ---> Clubs or Zyngo allowed only on sky unless Andrea Jolbey give the permission to build it on the ground ---> Skyboxes are allowed, but make sure you are not building in front of another resident on the sky ---> Breedables are allowed, if you don't like them don't worry because a lot of lands have no animals nearby ---> Mega prims are allowed, but if you build on the ground don’t make an excessive use of those and don't make ugly things. HOW TO RENT A LAND? --->
There are some boards on the wall in the office. Click on a board of the size you need to get the list of the lands available for that size.
--->
Teleport to the Land and pay the Rent box.
--->
Contact Andrea Jolbey or an Agent to get a group invite to have the rights of the land. (In the Office there are some Online Boards to see who is online)
--->
Welcome to your new land!!! :)
Image covenant for land rented. secondlife.com
> Observations and analysis Place as architectonic content - Your world your imagination In 2011 second life adopted the slogan “your world your imagination” after a long absence on SL's webpage. That individualist stance, carries on to the way space, is turned into place. Architecture is one of the main creations that users of second life participate in creating their own worlds. It is too, one of the agents of the self making project, if not the fundamental agent of place making. The customisation of both self and the social is completed through the customisation of one’s individualised place. However, places like London, Soho are owned by businesses like Billy Arentire and Torric Rodas’ enterprise, who set the architectural taste for the place, but some business own land with parcels ready for development into homes, shops and so on. In these sort of places which are the majority in second life, architecture is done at the whim of the individual within some limits set by the landowners. Often it is bad architecture and a source of conflicts which will be demonstrated by a story of Zazzy’s store, a bit later. There is a complex restlessness about the commons (or public spaces) in SL- “after all there is no your world in public”. However the public is privately owned while homes are rightfully privately owned at times. The assumption of the libertarian doctrine of America’s founding fathers that can be observed quite clearly is the idea of resident are a collection of private citizens, free to exercise their individuality; however such an approach fuels discontent and conflicts between residents as I will shortly demonstrate. However this begs the question whose imagination can the residents conduct their public in? Does this individualist approach create legitimate and cohesive communities?
[16] see:reason.com Most popular places in second life 2012 selection by Reason magazine.
However, In SL the discontent can be eased by the ‘market’, through Linden lab’s incessant polling and data mining - about who and when people occupy spaces. The data also contributes to the dwell count, a feedback mechanism that has the effect of rating and ranking places. Interestingly, place then competes for people rather than people competing for place, as places and land can always be made available. The free market has the tendency of introducing competition to any activity or commodity and rather in this case place. In other words people can choose to leave one 'sim' for another; if they find that they do not like that particular ‘Sim’. This mined data is then used to market these places on SL webpage to residents. Paradoxically, I think, this has an effect of homogenising places and limiting the imagination.. So one can observe a similarity in the ‘look’ and content of places in the ‘popular places bubble’ noted on SL's webpage as 'What’s Hot now', one example is the popularity of places such as France 3d, Dublin, Rio, New York and London - all of these were recreations of potions of real places to a degree, although what's hot can change very quickly in cyberspace, nonetheless the above where the 'hot' destinations during my fieldwork. Other popular places where as expected adult areas with explicit sexual content as illustrated by Reason magazine on the next page. [16]
48
> Observations and analysis
49
See: reason.com Most popular places in second life 2012 selection by Reason magazine.
> Observations and analysis
. .
Image by author bongani muchemwa
Image by author bongani muchemwa – looking at my neighbours creations.
53
the Self making project.
> Observations and analysis
51
In my first month of the investigation I visited close to 100 places, and got to love a few of them. I later visited these places quite frequently in the later months. Yet outside the ‘bubble of popular places’ which is dominated by the public, in the private one can observe a vast variety of architectural styles used to create places. SL is rich in various approaches in place making - some imaginative and some rather appalling. This is so mainly because nearly most of the architectonic content is self built and Linden Lab doesn’t impose any rules on how to build. Therefore a mismatch in style and taste can me observed quite easily. This liberal approach is also observed by the organisation and placing of architectonic typologies within land created by Linden lab - it is not unusual to come across a sex club in a predominant residential area, or again a dance hall next to a mosque. Second life’s places are self organising on this level. The individual has the liberty to create what ever space, in what ever way they like and unfortunately and often where ever they like and see fit as covenants are a times too lax and do not apply to all land purchased or ranted. An acquaintance of mine added: Jessica Wabbit: “If you buy off a piece of land then you can do as you please.” [17] After I had inquired about how I go about building my own place. However, the question is what happens to those who have invested in a place in which a monstrosity has landed, since the rules of building are lax and favour the individual at times? The market in this case is a limited, and can not defuse the discontent. Since Linden Lab does not place any zoning or content restrictions on what land owners can place on their property. "The result is in buildings of different purposes being fitted into nearby spaces, sometimes ensuing conflict. In extreme cases, "land griefing", "vandalism", or "graffiti" has occurred. Residents deliberately place obstructive or offensive content near to others. This has been leveraged on occasion as a low-level form of extortion, destroying the quality of the local view in an attempt to force neighbours to buy the offending parcel of land at greatly overpriced value."[18] [17] see: wikipidia.com also see Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg90-116 [18] ibid 93
> Observations and analysis
.
Image by author bongani muchemwa
52
> Observations and analysis
53 Place as community - building a collective imagination. One evening in SL Tom Boestorff received a message from one of his acquaintances: “Samuel: “would you like to teleport real quick to see how blight is driving people crazy? There’s another big sign demo out here in Greenacre.” Once there were at Greenacres ‘sim’, located just west of the ‘Sim’, a new store called Zazzy’s a black building with brightly coloured windows, their neon reds, blues, yellows and greens in a constantly changing pattern had caused a stare and more. Through the windows one could see a range of items for sale. “I’m sick about this”, Samuel said. Just next to Zazzy’s was Joanie’s, a popular dance club in the ‘sim’. As tom witnessed, Zazzy’s was boarded up with signs authored by a group calling themselves “Polite Neighbours,” they read: If you support Joanie’s do not buy from this store!!!. Stores of this nature belong in commercial areas. For someone to take the atmosphere of one of the most romantic venues in all of second life and trash it with flashing night club lights is rude and uncalled for….. As they surveyed the scene they noticed Zazzy floating near his store complaining about the protest signs:” if you think that by being mean they will get me to go they are wrong” Samuel moved towards Zazzy and they began to speak.
[19] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age in second life pg89-96
Samuel: you have no idea how much effort people have put into making this area nice. Your store here comes as a horrible shock. People here hate blight like this. Samuel: they need to have neighbours who are considerate. You just barged in here with flashing monster, ruining the view, they don’t’ like this flashing crap, It’s really hard on the eyes. Samuel: we all live here in this ‘sim’. This is a neighbourhood. Try to understand what they are going through. Samuel: try to understand that all the work you put in your store, Joanie did the same on her club. Whatever you can do to make Joanie’s view less a shock please try. Samuel: this is a neighbourhood. Try to understand: this club is this woman’s LIFE. Samuel: it’s her SECOND LIFE. Samuel: She has spent MONTHS working on it 24/7, getting in customers. Zazzy: This store is my life too. Samuel: yeah but she was here first dude, Joanie moved here when the ‘sim’ was new and now it’s like threatened for her. : Samuel why did you build out to the property line? When you do that, it ALWAYS make people mad. It’s that feeling you is crowding her that is getting to her.” [19]
> Observations and analysis
54
. Image by see: Tom Boellstoff see:Tom Boellstoff, Coming of age in second life pg89-96
>_ Observations and analysis The conflict at Greenacre ‘sim’ demonstrates four fundamental aspects about virtual worlds and how they have been indeed influenced by the Californian ideology.
[20] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age in second life pg91
1)
The coming to life of what Marshall McLuhan had termed the ‘global village’. In this accession he had observed that the future use of such networked ‘electronic’ (digital) media a new space would be formed. Samuel and Zazzy could have been sitting on the other side of the world but through this space “Greenacre ‘sim’ they where connected quite intimately just as ‘villagers’. “What he described as a global village, is the equivalent of what we now understand as globalisation afforded by the connectivity of cyberspace.”[20]
2)
The importance of the notions of place as the fundamental component of making a virtual world, without it second life would be reduced to a 2d social network like Facebook and MySpace.
3)
In some way Joanie, Samuel and Zazzy’s real life locations became irrelevant but the virtual place became relevant as a place in which they could create their own imaginary places or perhaps excise their own creativity. This new kind of place gave all the actors in this story the power to create place. This begs the question who are these people and where do they come from? Are they westerners with enough disposable income to enter these worlds to create these places? We shall look into these questions in the next section. However the assumption here is on the individual as the only relevant political entity. Rather than the elite and perhaps the collective (the government, business, or community) who in the ‘real world’ have the power of large amounts of money to create such public places, perhaps in SL this power is afford by the individual. In other words the common person through their own small heroic efforts will and creativity can define reality rather than those elites on top of the ant hill. So power is decentralised and distributed.
4)
The story also demonstrates the absence of formal ‘building officials’ (virtual architects / artists) and rigid regulations for making these places. Could it be that the absence of these practitioners, regulations and their formal institution is a sign that the individual again ultimately has the ‘power’ for self determination? And thus the individual is free from hierarchical control. This also reflects the DIY hacker notions that were developed by the communards in the 60s.
55
> Observations and analysis
56
Place as ‘land’ - a commodity for the uncontrolled imagination. Second life’s daily narratives are played out on its mainland called the Grid, which is a vast plane with different Sims in close proximity to each other. "Each standard ‘sim’ is 65,536 m² in size and can support up to 15,000 prims" (primitive forms that are the building blocks for the architectonic, and landscape content). [21] There is a limit to how many avatars can be on a ‘sim’, depending on the ‘sim’ type. Sims on the grid can support a maximum of "40 avatars, full regions can support up to 100 avatars. Homestead regions can support up to 20 avatars, and open space regions can support up to 10 avatars". On private estates, estate managers can set the maximum number of allowed avatars to less than the hard maximum." [22] However, other places do exist off the grid; these are mainly privately owed estates and islands. Vast areas of the Grid is owned and managed by various land lords and businesses, while the smaller quarters are owned by individuals on which they build their virtual homes and sometimes small places like bars, clubs, clothing shops, dance halls, brothels and so on.
[21] see: wikipidia.com also see Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg90-116 [22] see: ibid pg 93 [23] see: JOHN BIGGS, Virtual Pedophilia Report Bad News For Second Life, 2007, techcrunch.com also see DUNCAN RILEY, Second Life Bans Gambling Following FBI Investigation 2007 techcrunch.com, [24] see: Fred Turner, Steward Brand, kevin Kelly, Howard Rheingold, Stanford University Libraries presents a Symposium celebrating the legacy of the Whole Earth Catalog 2011.
The grid is divided into different ratings according to sexual content. There are three main categories moderate, adult and teen. A ‘sim’ like Skank Hole is an adult ‘sim’ while London Soho and Dublin are moderate ‘sims’. Under aged residents are restricted from accessing the moderate and adult Sims on the grid. This is a fairly recent reorganisation of the grid, before 2005 the whole grid was fairly accessible to every resident in accordance to the lax ‘liberal or libertarian’ rules initial coded by the founding fathers of second life. This reorganisation of the sims evolved from the number of disturbing incidents in which adult looking avatars were engaging in simulated sexual activities with ‘child looking avatars’. In essence, the activities seemed to be a disturbing version of paedophilia. Since the grid is a place inside the internet and its various narratives have no notion of jurisdiction. Discontent about a number of disturbing activities that also include virtual rape, theft and dubious banking practices by residents in and outside the US forced Linden labs to re-organise the gGrid in such a manor. [23] This does not mean these activities have been eliminated but rather contained and given zones in which they can be practiced freely - since ‘cyberspace is a frontier for the free’, and "Second life is essentially a site for social experiment" - Steward Brand, [24]
> Observations and analysis
57
Additional Land Parcel Size (m2) 1/128 Mainland Region 1/64 Mainland Region 1/32 Mainland Region 1/16 Mainland Region 1/8 Mainland Region 1/4 Mainland Region Open Space 1/2 Mainland Region Homestead 1 Mainland Region [25]
[25] see: List of land types Second Life Land Use Wikipedia.com also see second life/wiki.com for stats
Square Equal 512 1024 2048 4096 8192 16,384 65,536 32,768 65,536 65,536
Line Length (m)
Max Prims
22x22 (16x32) 32x32 44x44 (32x64) 64x64 90x90 (64x128) 128x1283 256x256 181x181 256x256 256x256
117 234 468 937 1875 750 750 7500 3750 15,000
However, the ratings may colour the Grid as an organised and controlled terrain, this is further from the truth. It is essentially a slum - self organised, placed spring over night and disappear over night. The whole is self organising although linden labs do have substantial control over the shape of the world map as they have the executive powers to bring more land on line by adding more servers onto their already massive assemblage of up to 20 thousand servers in California.
58
Chapter 1 1) The history and of context the Californian ideology 2) The history and context of virtual reality and virtual worlds conclusion
Chapter 2 b) Political economy –property, creative labour.
Chapter 1 1) The history and of context the Californian ideology 2) The history and context of virtual reality and virtual worlds conclusion
>_Terms of discussion
59
In this section, I am going to explore the political and the economic side of second life. The political and even the economic have already been hinted in the previous section. Much of what is explored in the previous section, politically is the notions of freedom to create and the points at which power is exercise by individuals on others via covenants, a lax but quite effective version of rules and regulations on the act of creating place. As observed in the previous section through the Fig 1. I suggest that politics and economy are part of place making. So there are some overlaps between the two sections. Definition: Political economy. The relationship between individuals and society and between markets and the state, using methods drawn from economics, political science, and sociology. (Webster dictionary).[29]
[29] see: defination political economy Websterdictinary.com aslo see Adam smith, The Wealth of Nations 1767 [30] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg 207 aslo see Mary Poovey Social Research: An International Quarterly Numbers 2001 pg 399
In this section I would like to further explore the question has second life been influenced by the Californian ideology. Much of the following discussions will touch on the relations between the social and cultural junctions were power emerges. This perhaps further will legitimise second life as a ‘place’ to some extent. Although from the previous argument the overriding concept was that space is ‘imagined and then experienced’. Therefore space and time are experienced through a godly perspective. So perception can be changed in ‘real time’ by building. While time can be altered in some extent by controlling when one wants it to be day or night and so on. So the environment is immediately understood and re-imagined. This also translates to the economy - “value is imagined then sensation is registered”. [30] This is not particularly new in the short tradition of virtual worlds and gaming although second life and other environment like it allow one to re-imagine personal narratives by a user friendly manipulation of the environment in real time and the self through the avatar.
>Terms of discussion
SL can almost be like" Robinson Crusoe’s adventure" [31] where one really can do things 60 themselves almost without external assistance. Unlike the real world which capitalism and its instruments such as the division of labour means we are always dependent on each other. However, the "Robinson Crusoe adventure" is not always the life script of most people in second life. [32] People do engage in the market, buying things that they may not be able to make themselves or find the time to make. Here I am only suggesting that a self reliant life is very much possible. It can be clearly observed that the technology allows residents to be utterly self-sufficient. And it was possible to meet residents who where building their own houses, clothes and anything they wanted. And at times such residents where also self employed within second life. Some observers like Professor Boellstroff suggest that this may possibly be ideological, pointing to the influence of the Californian ideology. Suggesting that such an organisation often referred to as neo-liberalism allowed residents to participate in creation which allows second life to grow and develop without an elite plan or traditional top down governance. This is often referred to as 'crowd sourcing' in internet speak. It delegates the building of the world to it's residents by giving them the power to do so. "Neo-liberalism is an ideology founded in the use of market mechanisms and personal responsibility, as a principle of governance.“[33] Definition: Neoliberal Adjective relating to a modified form of liberalism tending to favour free-market capitalism. (Oxford dictionary) [34] However this does not mean power is not practiced over others, taking into account that it is possible for one to live as an island. The political, social and economic revert back to the land. Land is the primary currency and it here where rules spring and the governed and governors emerge.
[31] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg 208-214
Second life has no government although what is led in here has some interesting overlaps with real life states. Philip Rosedale once said that “in building a second life: "I'm not building a game. I'm building a new country." [35] How far is this true one wonders?
[32] see:ibid [33] see: ibid 206 also see Wendy Hui Kyong Chun Control and freedom power 2006 [34] see: definition of Neoliberal, oxford dictionary.com [35] see: Philip Rosedale talks about the virtual society he founded, Second Life at TED.com 2008. [36] see: definition of Governance, oxford dictionary.com
Definition: Governance. archaic rule; control. (Oxford dictionary) [36]
>_ Observations and analysis
Governance - Cyberspace is feudal Although second life as an assemblage shares some aspects with real life states in terms of governance, it is important to note that many governments in real life have to confront threats to their citizens such as wars. There are no wars in second life except for pretend ones, which are mostly confined to ‘role playing battle zone’ ‘sims’. Further more there is no need for a governmental policy or frame work for life and death situations such as famine or natural disasters. Or even social policies for healthcare or welfare, mostly because the citizens of second life are not real human being after all. Avatars do not have the same needs for security as human beings do. So a different approach to governance has been set up- more akin to Neo-liberalism an ideology that is most seen by critics in real life as advocating the reversal of the state and it’s social duties to the people. This ideology is often associated with techno-libertarians and Californian ideologues [37] So when I posed the question to Professor Boellstroff about the above assumptions, in which I asked if SL might be a good example of a simulated neo-liberal state or libertarian experiment." He replied via email saying "The issue is the platform doesn't determine the social form. It is definitely *not* a simulated neoliberal state - governance in S.L doesn't work like a state in that sense, though there are some interesting overlaps for sure. And there are libertarian experiments in SL, but also all other kinds of things - religious communities, kinship networks, etc. In that respect it's like the internet in general - hard to say it "is" any one thing because people do lots of different things, and usually things not expected by linden lab. [38] However when I posed the same question to Dr Richard Battle, he suggested that governance in SL was more akin to a monarchy or even something more powerful than that. He put it simple in our email correspondence: “Linden Labs are SL's gods, not their government. They can't escape that, that's always going to be the case, whether they like it or not.” [39]
[37] see: Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, California ideology 1994 [38] see: Richard Barbrook, Appendix and DVD interview 2012 [39] see: Dr Richard Battle Appendix email interview 2012 [40] see: wikipidia.com also see Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg 215-234
While in my own experience as a tenant, at the local level "private property reigns supreme. Land owners or land barons become lords of the realm as property comes with the privilege of making rules. A building's owner makes the rules, and can simply eject or ban any resident he or she wishes to, with or without cause. An owner of 512 square meters is lord of that manor, just as the so-called Land Barons are the lords of their much larger ones. Some groups of people in Second Life have created small-scale political structures. For example, they might band together, purchase property in the group's name, and agree to follow ingroup rules and regulations, elect officers, and support a monarchy etc." [40] Consider the dialog on the next page, that I happen to be part of a few months ago as an anecdotal illustration.
61
> Observations and analysis
One evening a 'cheeky' character by the name RealEvil was scene loitering naked around London Soho’s main square as a number of people where popping in for the even session if there where in real life England at least. McMillan was the first avatar to be offended by this, buts since neither of us did not own the ‘sim’ we couldn’t enforce the rules to make RealEvil wear some clothes. The dialog started politely while at one point McMillan was heard threatening RealEvil with physical violence. Absurd as this might sound it felt as if McMillan was indeed really upset by the event, and at one point muting RealEvil’s texts so that they were not talking to each other anymore. kumori Viper: squeezed RealEvil's tight a**!!! McMillan: I hope a London support team would ask people, even if they are member of the elite clique to respect the 'sim' rules Umuntu3 (the author): what are the ‘sim’ rules? Jessica Wabbit: Go to the World menu and then to "about land" Jessica Wabbit: Then the Covenant tab Jessica Wabbit: Rules in there Umuntu3 (the author): I will have a look McMillan: they are repeated above the entrance of the shop McMillan: No Nudity, sex or offensive language Jessica Wabbit: Some headlined above the shop, yes Jessica Wabbit: But the full list is in the covenant Jessica Wabbit: Common sense really Jessica Wabbit: Just try not to spam or bug people KumoriViper: fondled RealEvil's private parts and loved it! McMillan: that is sexual rp and offensive language RealEvil: go read a book dude Jessica Wabbit: There's no "no nudity" rule RealEvil: wtf is wrong with u? Jessica Wabbit: This is an M sim. Everyone should be over 18 McMillan: a ‘sim’ official should ask people not to use such language Jessica Wabbit: The Covenant changes more often than the textures on walls :-) umuntu3 (the author): does anyone know who owns this place Jessica Wabbit: Torric Rodas and Billy Arentire McMillan: the rules above the entrance have never changed Jessica Wabbit: Nudity is frowned upon and people could be asked to go to the new A-rated ‘sim’, but it's not strictly against the rules McMillan: the ‘sim’ rule says: no nudity
62
> Observations and analysis Jessica Wabbit: No bans would come of it unless they are being overtly sexual McMillan: you can always tp out to a sex ‘sim’, if you wish RealEvil: just let me express myself the way I want Jessica Wabbit: In simple terms for the slow. The rules above the door are outdated and don't include or exclude everything McMillan: ask the ‘sim’ owners to change the rules then Jessica Wabbit: The Covenant is the final word on the rules RealEvil: get real Jessica Wabbit: And Torric and Billy's judgement is final. RealEvil: ya there must be some limits [41] I told this little story to Richard Barbrook during our interview and his comment perhaps best describes SL’s governance as ‘Feudalism’, since only the owners of the ‘sim’ Torric and Billy had the power to ban RealEvil from the ‘Sim’. [42] I would add that what Real Evil was doing is one example of ‘griefing’, allowed by the anonymity that disembodiment affords residents of virtual worlds. The self expression of such nature exemplifies a need for escape and breaking from norms and etiquette of real life. Definition Feudalism: The system of political organization prevailing in Europe from the 9th to about the 15th centuries having as its basis the relation of lord to vassal with all land held in fee and as chief characteristics homage, the service of tenants under arms and in court, warship, and forfeiture [43] At one point in the interview he compared SL to a "Starbacks franchise , they supply you with the store, then you run it...they do all the advertising and they cream off all the profits“ [44]
[41] see: Appendix for full chat log [42] see: quoted Richard Barbrook, Appendix and DVD interview (2012) [43] see: definition of Governance, oxford dictionary.com [44] see:Richard Barbrook, Appendix and DVD interview (2012
63
> Observations and analysis
Labour and money - Enslaved creatives “Linden Labs reports that the Second Life economy generated US$3,596,674 in economic activity during the month of September 2005, and as of September 2006 Second Life was reported to have a GDP of $64 Million. [46] In 2009 the total size of the Second Life economy grew 65% to US$567 million, about 25% of the entire U.S. virtual goods market. Gross Resident Earnings are $55 million US Dollars in 2009 - 11% growth over 2008.” [45] The phrase ‘money makes the world go round’ applies down to the fundamental structure of how second life has been built and designed. Money adds the next order of authenticity and value to spaces. In some way money among other factors and drivers creates ‘place’ in second life. The symbolic value of money, in which it represents goods and services mixed with some amount of creativity and imaginations, creates value, an issue that I will expand on shortly. But first, suppose I had finished building my house and somehow I wanted to recoup my £10 per month in rent for the last 6 months, it was possible for one to sell off the house and make some money out of that labour/ creativity and time. A house could be sold separately from the land, The house would be kept in one’s inventory - a personal bag of data that allows one to keep items such as clothing, vehicles, and accessories and so on one’s person, so this can be imagined as a very deep pocket. The usual asking prizes ranged from zero Linden dollars up to a million linden dollars and over. Earning money was one of the primary reasons for people signing up. I remember one ‘newbie’ asking me “how can I make money in second life”. I told her money could be made in buying and selling land or in creating things that people may buy. I had heard from an acquaintance that I briefly informally interviewed. [46]
[45] see: quoted on wikipidia.com also see secondlife/wiki.com, also see LindeX.com [46] see: Appendix for full chat log [47] see: lindex.com 2012 data also see Appendix for data. [48] see: Wikipidia.com aslo see Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg 206-218
Using the official money exchange called the Linden X; it was then possible for one to real earn money, by exchanging linden dollars for real life currencies like the pound or the US dollar. During my fieldwork, Linden exchange rates run L$244 per US$1 or L$388 per £1 on average [47] The exchange of goods, services and privet property was one of the main vehicles in second life’s self development or self organisation. Examples of services in second life include "working in stores, custom content creation, and other personal services.“ [49] Virtual goods included buildings, vehicles, devices of all kinds, animations, clothing, skin, eyes, genitals, jewellery, hair, flora and fauna, works of art, and breed-able in-game animals and pets such as: turtles, horses, cats, dogs, fish, dragons, and original in-game pets called Meeroos [48] The list contains some novel items like eyes and skin although this could be put in similar terms as cosmetic surgery in real life. This market exemplified some kind of a simplified life, where one can wake up one morning and go and buy new pair of eyes as if they where casually buying a bottle of milk or bread for breakfast. While Meeroos represent a market for creative expression.
64
> Observations and analysis In the list of goods and services there is obvious absence of food and health care, both are 65 vital components of our own real life economy. This only points again to the element of unreality although many of second life features tries to replicate real life most of the time, exemplified in formal ideas on trade. Popular jobs included prostitution veiled at times by the title dancer or escort, fashion designer, Linden Dollar Broker, ‘DJ-ing,’ Animator, Texture Artist, Bouncer/Security Agent, Builder/Modeller (architects, vehicle designers and so on) while dancer or prostitute, modeller Land baron where the most lucrative jobs. With some land barons being reported to have earned millions by selling and managing estates exemplified by Miss Anshe Chung’s success mentioned in the introduction. The existence of ‘freebies' (see glossary) “gift economy” exemplified the earlier role of the internet for the sharing o information and collaboration in the military academic complex o the cold war. [49] This also suggested a willingness to share objects especially to lure visitors to a ‘sim’ thereby increasing the dwell count o that 'sim'. During our interview Richard Barbrook added in a slight dismissive tone: “going back to Rand, in that way you might say it's an objectivist paradise... forget democracy it's all based on free markets and it's all owned by a corporation and everything in there is worthless.“ [50] In some way he might be right, value is imagined and the real currency in second life is creativity and imagination. While the final overriding governmental policies were dealt with by Linden Lab, they have the final say within the Second Life Terms of Service. Apart from selling land, which was and is Linden Labs’ primary function in SL, many residents main preoccupation after socialising was in the creation of second life’s content. Making things was thought to be the fundamental motivation in singing up to second life for some residents but not all.
[49] see: Richard Barbrook Cybernetic communism manifesto 2007 www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/18/by-richard-barbrook/ Also see Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg90-116 [50] see: quoted Richard Barbrook, Appendix and DVD interview (2012) [51] see: Tom Boellstroff, Coming of age second life. 2008, pg 209 also see Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, California ideology 1994
Second life’s economy is exemplified by what Tom Boellstroff termed ‘’creationist capitalism’’. During his fieldwork this was "becoming recognized as globally predominant mode of production, often phrased in terms of a 'creative class' or 'creative industries' (caves 2000; Florida 2002; Hartley 2005). In creationist capitalism it is person who create, not God; it is a vision of people inhabiting specialized online communities’’ where ‘creative act is no more or less than the re-enactment of the creation’’ (Purdy 2001:357). Through conflating labour and creation, production itself becomes a form of spectacle in which ‘reality considered partially unfolds, in its own general unity as a pseudo-world apart’’ (Debord 1983:2) [51]
> Observations and analysis However, it seems the idea of lax rules and free markets crumbles at closer look, here I am suggesting that the covenants for example instead of regulating what can be done on a piece of land it is possible to control resident’s fullest creative and imaginative capacities, in the name of curbing conflict. Meanwhile it might be fair to say that second life has a free market with very little to no regulations, stopping there would be forgetting that linden labs produce new land by racking new severs onto its server farm, therefore rather than regulating an economy that is really based on private property, Linden lab are very much in control of the main levers o the of it. They are the "invisible hand of the market.� [52] Consider a recent act, in which Linden Lab banned games of chance on real life sporting events with the L$ after complains of fraud. Casino owners and betting houses where given only a few days to pack up and close their businesses. They either had to find a new trade or go under. This ban had the effect of toppling SL's largest bank Ginko Financial which severed most casinos in SL with ATMs. All the casinos withdrew all their money from the bank and since it had poorly invested in virtual securities which where not trading well, the bank went under. [53] The moral of the story here is that Linden lab have the power to shift markets, destroy some and create new ones; its control over the economy really suggest that SL does not have totally free, 'free markets'. However, at the end of chapter one, I slightly entertain the notion that cyberspace is in a loop, of self perpetuation. It begs the question, what does technology wants? Is it to enslave us? Are we working for technology, evident suggests we are. The principle of crowd sourcing that second life uses to perpetuate it's self is one example. This suggests that technology has its own consciousness and agenda which many would say is probably not true. Technology is and cyberspace is neutral. After all a hummer has no agenda, its agenda is given to it by the hand. Whose hand is holding the hammer, perhaps its Linden lab.
[52] see: Adam smith, The Wealth of Nations 1767 [53] see: Bryan Gardiner, Bank Failure in Second Life Leads to Calls for Regulation, Wired Magazine. www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2007/08/virtual_bank Quoted on wikipidia.com
66
>_ Observations and analysis In 1994 Carmen Hammersillo one of second life's prominent residents and a theorist of cyberspace wrote a disturbing essay suggesting that cyberspace was not what people thought is was - not a hippie utopia, most notably to have been described romantically by Richard Brautigan in a poem entitled “All watched over by machines o love and grace” published in 1963. (Please see fig 2 in the appendix page 82) [54] She suggested that cyberspace was where our free labour of love, joy and emotions where bought and sold. She wrote “when I went into cyberspace I went into it thinking that it was a place like any other place and that it would be a human interaction like any other human interaction. I was wrong when I thought that. It was a terrible mistake....cyberspace.... is a black hole; it absorbs energy and personality and then re-presents it as spectacle. people tend to express their vision of the mass as a kind of imaginary parade of blue-collar workers, their musclebound arms raised in defiant salute....as Romantic as a dozen long-stemmed red roses.....it is fashionable to suggest that cyberspace is some kind of _island of the blessed_ where people are free to indulge and express their Individuality. Some people write about cyberspace as though it were a 60′s utopia. In reality, this is not true. major online services, like compuserv and America online, regular guide and censor discourse....I have seen many people spill their guts on-line, and I did so myself until, at last, I began to see that I had 'commodified' myself. 'Commodification' means that you turn something into a product which has a money-value. In the nineteenth century, commodities were made in factories, which Karl Marx called “the means of production.” capitalists were people who owned the means of production, and the commodities were made by workers who were mostly exploited. I created my interior thoughts as a means of production for the corporation that owned the board I was posting to, and that commodity was being sold to other commodity/consumer entities as entertainment. That means that I sold my soul like a tennis shoe and I derived no profit from the sale of my soul." [55]
[54] see: appendix Richard Brautigan all watched over by machines of love and grace 1963 . [55] see: Carmen Hammersillo, Pandora’s Vox 1994
67
>_ Observations and analysis My point here is that cyberspace has not distributed power to users, in fact it has concentrated power to the owners of these virtual worlds. "For the Californian ideologues preaching McLuhan’s doctrine, the imminent arrival of the Net meant that people would soon be living, thinking and working in a peaceful, equalitarian and participatory divination.“[56] Paradoxically my findings in second life reveal a place that is segregated into small units of interests, people relate to each other in island of self congratulatory participation. Every time I popped into London or Skank Hole, for an example, I met the same people, there were no many chance meetings with different people. Looking at the statistics it clear to see that SL it is a world occupied by westerners, 40% of residents are Americans while another 40% are western Europeans. While 20% were random assortments of Asian, south American and others. (see appendix page 78). [57] These were 'the vanguard', the "pioneering population of 'creative’s' paving the way to the future as suggested by Philip Rosedale in one of his talks. [58] However most of them are not, what I would call pioneers but merely a labour force that Carmen Hermosillo refers to. Their identities are being sold and marketed, while they pay money in rents for the opportunity to do so. Second life exemplifies a continuing land grab of cyberspace, in which more spaces on the Net are being turned into corporate states that delegate us as users to build them while paying rent in real money or in our highly textured social activities - be it play or building that are sold to advertisers. While there exist a feudal system of governance it seems the idea of personal responsibility is limited and perhaps the neoliberal and libertarian ethos begins and stops at the land barons and the few 'creatives'. Here it seems there are inequalities in second life. The land barons and the creators of objects are the ones that exemplify the "Randian hero" archetype. They are the creators of the world and possess some power over others to match. In fact studies on the Gini coeffience of Second life reported it to be "0.96 in 2008" suggesting that the income inequality in SL is very high -"the poorest 50% receive only 0.87% of total income the richest 10% receive 90% of total income.“ [59] This suggests that there exists a consumer culture where people do not really have to be creative to enjoy the experience - the experience it's self is consumed. While for those so called ‘creatives’ that can not compete in the creative markets, their contributions to the perpetuation of second life may not be very lucrative. [56] see:: Richard Barbrook, imaginary futures: from thinking machines to the global village pg 76 [57] see: xdfusion.com quoted Meta Linden’s Last Public Monthly Stats (Nov 2008) 59] see: Philip Rosedale,talks about secondlife at ted.com 2008 [60] See: LindeX data 2008, qouted wikipidia.com also see Secondlife.com forum archive 2008
68
>_Conclusion
Perhaps the need for one to create their own identity through the creation of place is universal in any capitalist space. One may add that maybe this reflects on the virtue of capitalism - in the sense that seeking profit via the ownership of property/land. And the need for one to improve their individual lot has actually served society quite well for millennial. And it has aided western civilisation to self perpetuate efficiently and effectively. Therefore for anyone seeking to create a virtual world this is the model that they should always use. However, this is a notion that suggest that SL is hopelessly capitalist, an assertion that Tom Boellstroff disagrees with. The owner of Skank Hole for an example has a bar not only to earn money but they have done it because it's something 'cool'. Skank Hole is a Vehicle for her to stamp her individuality not only for profit but for the expression of her identity, creativity and happiness. In many ways this has become the ideal in the new post modern economy of the virtual citizens. Work becomes not an activity to make ends meet but an exercise in self fulfilment [61] As a result, perhaps there is some truth in the claim that in digital utopia citizens are participants in the creation of place, on an individual level rather than collectively. In all cases my self, Joanne and Zazzy, have left a stamp in second life and have changed some form of reality. Second life legitimatise it's self as a Californian ideological ground on the basis of the above notions but also the idea that a networked 'free market' or 'liberal exchange‘ although limited as augured in chapter 2, this has the power to give order to a place without much formal governance or rigid rules on it's development. However what any consumer of SL and perhaps cyberspace is sold is the idea of this space as a land of the imagination and the free, which at a glance seems wonderful.
[61] see: Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, California ideology 1994
Again, I would like to add that the flipside of this imaginary Utopia is observed in effect of the incessant polling and data mining of the various networks in second life. This has created a public space that is quite homogenous and lacking in real imagination and hopelessly under the discipline of SL's internal marketing, which rates categorises and prunes places into cash cows called popular places. So successful places breed ‘wanna-be’ places with similar characteristics as the parent. The bubble of popular place constitutes the entirety of second life as these are the most visited places. The selling of these places in terms of breathless futurism perhaps overshoots actuality, and the idea of cyberspace as a place of citizens as participants who are building a new civilisation is limited. The idea of cyberspace as a place of the imagination is also limited. There is nothing new here or rather futuristic; this is really the same imaginary future that the counter-culturist envisioned in the 60s, perhaps only various aspects of it. There is a great deal of thrill seeking and the obsession for greater liberty and individualism of both the 60s and the followers of Ayan Rand’s Objectivism.
69
>_Conclusion
What counts as liberation in second life unfortunately is perhaps, as I observed the one's 70 ability to say the ‘F’ word or conduct sexual acts in full glare of other people or even take part in communities that practice these activities. As Philip Rosedale puts it in one of his many lectures “we watched as some social experiments in the ways of living collapse in the early days of second life." [62] Simply put, these communities tried to resist the structure or coded assumptions that can only allow social relations and activities to be reduced into a market of thrills. Hence the most popular jobs and activities in second life are shopping, prostitution, 'Dj-ing' and so on. Much of the distaining activities including ‘griefing’ are afforded by the anonymity that a virtual space affords residence. This I feel has a dehumanising effect as a resident of these places at times. Claims of individual freedom to ‘create’ are controlled by the technological panoptical (seeing without being seen) that a networked cybernetic place affords. Therefore individuals in cyberspace are not free at all or imaginative, their efforts are mostly controlled and directed by rules set by land owners. Their built projects and their contents especially in the public arena are subjected to the market via the dwell count instrument, therefore forcing their creations to be inline with ‘successful ones’. So if a brothel island is a model for success, It is adopted by many ambitious builders. Perhaps here the market is incentivising the some of the unconstructive sides of human nature. However in that sense conflict or discontent denotes that what is at stake in this 'virtual agora' is as real as any notion of place, as the symbols and icons of place have been given meaning and relevance by the idea that when one builds in second life their are building themselves. The Imagination asks questions and often produces new ideas of how to live and how we should be living. The artist always has the task of producing answers and sometimes he/she may succeed in producing something new. A Radian hero is most often an Artist, and the idea in the Californian ideology that everyone can become such an artist is a fallacy, hence there is a lack of real experimentation with ways of organising place and its various aspects. “They have re-created America’s sprawling suburbia in a computer”. Richard Barbrook added during an interview at his house about the banality of some places in second life. [63]
[62] see: Philip Rosedale Creator of Second Life Lecture at the Singularity Insititute 2011. [63] see: Richard Barbrook, Appendix and DVD interview 2012 [64] see: Tom Boellstroff, Appendix email interview 2012.
However there are various places in which perhaps new and interesting ideas of place can be observed but the above assertions constitute the dominant script. There are a few artists who are doing this work, questioning the idea of what a place in cyberspace should look like, and even the idea that avatars need to occupy an enclosure with 4 walls and a roof. Professor Tom Boellstroff points out in our discussion. [64] Perhaps the citizens of this so called liberal city are not entirely to blame for the lake of real imagination. Perhaps there are other driving forces that are stopping such experiments.
>_Conclusion
[65] see: Richard Barbrook, Appendix and DVD interview 2012 [66] see: Grace Wyler , PRESENTING: The 11 Craziest Ideas Newt Gingrich Has Ever Had, bussnessinsider.com 2011 aslo see Newt Gingrich Speaks in Second Life, Gets Heckled, Greeted by Naked Female Avatar, posted at gamepolitics.com 2007 also see Ryan Lizza, When Newt Met Hari Seldom SELDON, The New Yorker 2011.
One aspect of second life which is rather intriguing is that it is both a simulation and a place. And simulation tends to be an image of another, in this case arguably the Californian ideology to some extent. For many artists the image has always been the end product in which society can use to construct a new world. Simulations in the hands of the imagination can simulate something new and more exciting rather than recreating the old or what already exists. I believe what is restricting greater forms of imagining place anew are the rigid imposition by an observable hierarchy which is linden labs and its landlords. The paradox here is in the claims that in cyberspace we are free individuals. I feel we are not but rather controlled by cybernetic nature of second life for the benefit of its creators and their landlords - thus the imagination is actually controlled. Perhaps the discontent and conflicts show desperate needs for actual liberation and emancipation, in that sense second life and cyberspace share similar metaphoric parallels as America in Jefferson's era. Despite the liberal and progressive claims during that era “human being where kept as slaves while the other half of the population couldn't vote.” [65] Here Richard adds “there is a disjunction between the claims or the rhetoric and actuality”. The new right’s techno-booster, Newt Gingrich once said “Second Life will help build a better America” could be one of the best examples of rhetoric not fitting the actual narrative. [66] Considering that taking some aspects of Second life can only be described as feudalism, and that is not the future but a primitive past that should never be taken as a model to make America better.
71
>_
. Image of ‘Alt avi’ Umuntu 1 by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
Conclusion
Chapter 3
>_Conclusion
73
I have tried to legitimise second life as a ‘place’, implying that it should be taken seriously. One can not deny the significance of the ‘place-ness’ of cyberspace in it’s own right, but it is not an island, it very much realise on our real minds to occupying it for it to become a ‘place’. One could also recognise that although significant cyberspace and indeed second life is to those resident that call it their second home, it is still a pseudo world. A world of signs and symbols that emotions and a little bit of creativity has conjured. Second life and other virtual gizmos on the Net are something in between the real and imagined. Taking a page from William Gibson’s thought cyberspace is another side of the city. I would add that second life is a little town in cyberspace just beyond London if one’s broadband connectivity is looking good. Maybe in the future our siblings will not have this anxiety over distinguishing what is real and what is not. "Western society has a problem with appearance and reality. It wants to split them off from each other, make one more real than the other, and invest one with more meaning than it does the other." [1] Just maybe one day we will accept that this part of the city that mainly consists of images is as real and solid as a block of marble, if only considered as just another district of the city. Contemporary writers such as Jean Baudrillard seem to worry Very much about computers, the internet and virtual reality. Baudrillard Says that they have “murdered the real.” [2]
[1] see: quoted from William Gibson: The New Cyber/Reality an interview on, The Agenda with Steve Paikin 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVEUWfDHqsU [2] see: Carmen Hammersillo, Pandora’s Vox 1994 [3] see: Jean Baudrillard, The Murder of the Real lecture given at Wellek Library of University of California 1999 , also see Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and simulation 1994 and Umberto Eco
What I have tried to express in the beginning of chapter 2 is the notion that everything that man creates and inhabits are fruits of his or her imagination. We live in an imagined world, nature in a romantic way does not exist anymore, and nature is now reshaped and programmed. Computers will help us to imagine further possibilities of what we can do with matter and also increasingly with ones and zeros. I don't want to sound like a technological determinist but it is my belief that by only reshaping nature we can live more comfortably on earth, if not responsibly as well.
>_Conclusion
I think the dissertation has shown that there has been a link between advertising (perhaps the kind that reflects the the Californian ideology), and virtual worlds in the arena of perpetuating the ideas of creativity, empowerment, individualism, and liberation that virtual worlds have to offer to users. It’s obvious enough that these are terms that any’ ‘Ad man’ can use to sell almost anything. So one could put up a warning sign for anyone signing up to any virtual world or indeed any social network saying ‘enter at your peril’. However, this would be missing the point that virtual worlds could allow use to re-imagine our selves and our environments. New research lead by Jeremy Bailenson suggests that there is a link between our selves perception and our behaviour. At Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab Bailenson “suggests that the qualities you acquire online — whether it's confidence or insecurity — can spill over and change your conduct in the real world, often without your awareness. Bailenson has found that even 90 seconds spent chatting it up with avatars is enough to elicit behavioral changes offline — at least in the short term. "When we cloak ourselves in avatars, it subtly alters the manner in which we behave," says Bailenson. "It's about self-perception and self-confidence." [3] Bailenson also suggests that there is a positive correlation between improved self confidence when one is using attractive avatars. So I am off to build the most beautiful house in second life in which my new and improved avatar will live in. And maybe the positive energy from this alternative life will ‘rub off’ into my own real. It is fair to speculate that virtual worlds might have vast implication to our real lives in terms of simulating better and imaginative societies as I discuss at the end of chapter 2. I think a shift in think about virtual worlds away form the capitalist and Californian ideology is necessary to facilitate this. I think these tools and assemblages could be useful to architects and policy makers in to create better communities – the other side of the city could tell the other what is possible and not possible since the other city possesses the power to simulate.
[3] see: Krist in a Dell, How Second Life Affects Real Life, The times
74
THE END.. . Image of ‘Alt avi’ Umuntu 1 by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
> _ select Bibliography Books. Papers and essays. 1.
Simulacres et Simulation (1994) author Jean Baudrillard
2.
True Names. (1981). pub: Binary Star #5, author: Vernor Vinge
3.
Neuromancer (1984) pub: Ace, author: William Gibson
4.
The Simulacra (1964) pub: Ace, author Philip K. Dick.
5.
Snow Crash (1992) Pub: Penguin Group author Neal Stephenson
6.
Two Concepts of Liberty from the Four Essays on Liberty(1958) . Pub :Oxford: Oxford University Press. author Isaiah Berlin
7.
California ideology essay (1994) pub: Mute magazine author Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron
8.
Control and freedom: power and paranoia in the age of fibre optics (2006) pub: MIT press author Wendy Hui Kyong Chun
9.
Flame Wars: the discourse of cyberculture (1995) pub: duke press author Mark Dery
10.
Coming of age in Second Life: (2008) pub Princeton and Oxford press author Tom Boellstrorff
11.
Out of this world, Science fiction but not as you Know it. (2011) author Mike Ashley
12.
Virtual worlds (1992) pub Blackwell publishers, author Benjamin Woolley
13.
From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006) pub: The University of Chicago press author Fred Turner.
14.
Imaginary Futures: From thinking machines to the Global village (2007) pub: pluto press author Richard Barbrook
15.
Second Lives: A journey through virtual Worlds (2007) pub: Hutchinson London author Tim Guest
16.
Adventures of a bystander. (1994) pub: John Wiley and sons inc ,author Peter Dracker
17.
The Global Village: Transformation in World Life and Media in the 21st century (1989) pub: oxford university press, author Marshall MacLuhan and Bruce R. Power.
18.
The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967) pub: Penguin Books author Marshall MacLuhan Quentin Fiore
75
> _ select Bibliography
76 Films. Videos and you tube lecture. 2. Philip Rosedale, Creator of Second Life (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C04wwLjJ0os) 3. Philip Rosedale on Second Life ( http://www.ted.com/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html) 4. All watched over by machines of love and grace: The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts: Adam Curtis on Cybernetics, Ecology & Power, BBC 2 (2011). 5. TRON - Legacy (2010) Director: Joseph Kosinski Writers:Edward Kitsis (screenplay), Adam Horowitz(screenplay), 6. All watched over by machines of love and grace: love and power : Adam Curtis on Cybernetics, Ecology & Power, BBC 2 (2011). 7. Imaginary Futures: From thinking machines to the Global village Richard Barbrook talks at virtual futures 2010 8. The Fountain Head Director: King Vidor 1949 Websites 1. http://www.wiredmagazine 2. http://secondlife.com/ 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Rosedale 5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacra_and_Simulation 7.http://www.washingtonpost.com/ 8.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims 9. http://reason.com/blog/2008/02/14/is-second-lifes-libertarian-ex
> _ Appendix: DATA
77
> _ Appendix: DATA
78
> _ Appendix: DATA
79
Breakdown by Age Group
Country
Total Hours
Percentage
United States
14,451,180.28
39.38%
Germany
3,505,103.93
9.55%
United Kingdom
2,424,987.88
6.61%
Japan
2,014,299.45
5.49%
France
1,972,875.00
5.38%
Netherlands
1,406,652.90
3.83%
Italy
1,397,571.12
3.81%
Brazil
1,361,741.72
3.71%
Canada
1,336,706.03
3.64%
Spain
1,083,716.70
2.95%
Australia
747,158.40
2.04%
Belgium
349,070.48
0.95%
Portugal
332,468.60
0.91%
Percentage of Total Hours
Switzerland
277,448.60
0.76%
Age Group
Poland
234,785.58
0.64%
13-17
0.32%
Argentina
196,719.35
0.54%
18-24
15.07%
Denmark
193,975.72
0.53%
25-34
34.51%
Sweden
191,424.80
0.52%
35-44
28.51%
Mexico
177,130.73
0.48%
45 plus
21.14%
Turkey
176,759.05
0.48%
Unknown
0.45%
Others
2,866,931.23
7.81%
Source: Meta Linden’s Last Public Monthly Stats (Nov 2008)
Cited at http://xdfusion.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/know-your-customers-second-life-demographics/
Source: Meta Linden’s Last Public Monthly Stats (Nov 2008)
> _ Appendix: DATA
80
Transaction Amount
Transaction Count
Percentage
1L$
8,729,115
34.74%
2 – 19 L$
5,260,478
20.94%
20 – 49 L$
2,581,514
10.27%
50 – 199 L$
4,337,712
17.26%
200 – 499 L$
2,197,894
8.75%
500 – 999 L$
878,769
3.50%
1,000 – 4,999 L$
881,163
3.51%
5,000 – 19,999 L$
210,254
0.84%
20,000 – 99,999 L$
45,434
0.18%
100,000 – 499,999 L$
4,655
0.02%
>= 500,000 L$
425
0.00%
Source: Second Life Economic Data – Resident Transactions by Amount (April 28th, 2009)
Cited at http://xdfusion.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/know-your-customers-second-life-demographics/
81
82
Richard Brautigan all watched over by machines of love and grace 1963. See: http://www.brautigan.net/poetry.html
> _ Appendix
83
Experts in political theory, virtual worlds and gaming Theory and practice I interviewed. 1. Dr Richard Barbrook: co-author of The Californian ideology (interview at his house) (please see the enclosed DVD for our conversations) 2. Professor Tom Boellstroff: The author of Second life coming of age: an Anthropologist explores the Virtually Human. (email interview) (please see the following pages for email correspondence) 3. Richard Allan Bartle : co-creator of the first MUDs –multi-user-dungeons (email interview) please see the following pages for email correspondence)
> _ Appendix
Correspondence with DR Richard Allan Bartle : co-creator of the first MUDs – multi-user-dungeons (email interview) please see the following pages for email correspondence) Bongani Muchemwa <bomuch@gmail.com> Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 5:50 PM To: rabartle@essex.ac.uk SECOND LIFE Hi Dr Richard Bartle I was watching your talk on gamification on you tube, and I was wounding if you know much about the massively multilayer online virtual world (second life) I have been reading the book - coming of age in second life a book by Tom Boellstorff , which I enjoyed very much. I have also been reading Fred Turner's From Counter-culture to cyber culture, and a couple of months ago I had the pleasure of chatting with Dr Richard Barbrook about second life and the Californian ideology. I am a masters student at the university of Westminster school of architecture in London, and am preparing to write a dissertation entailed: 'how the California ideology has influenced a virtual city.‘ I have set up a an account in second life, and for the past 6 months i have been exploring and makingobservations.During the my title talk with Dr Barbrook he suggested that SL might be a good example of a simulated neoliberalstate or libertarian experiment. I am just wondering if this is a fair and accurate comment ? Your opinion on rewards and prices for gamers were quite interesting i thought. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raj2SBU3PW4 And is it possible for us to discuss about these themes email. Bongani E Muchemwa 5th year March Architecture student University of Westminster London England.
84
Richard A. Bartle <rabartle@essex.ac.uk> Sat, Nov 17, 2012 at 10:31 AM To: Bongani Muchemwa <bomuch@gmail.com> BONGANI –
>I was watching your talk on gamification on you tube, and I was wounding if you know much about the >massively multilayer online virtual world (second life) Well yes, of course I know about it! My main field of research is virtual worlds; Second Life is the pre-eminent example of a social world (although most of the interesting stuff is happening in OpenSim these days). >I have been reading the book - coming of age in second life a book by Tom Boellstorff Hmm. You haven't got as far as the back cover, then? >I am a masters student at the university of Westminster school of architecture in London, >and am preparing to write a dissertation entailed: >'how the California ideology has influenced a virtual city.‘ It's not really architectural, it's more urban planning. In my experience, architects are disappointed with SL because it frees up creativity yet people don't take advantage of that creativity. They look too much like real houses for reasons nothing to do with why real houses look like real houses. >During the my title talk with Dr Barbrook he suggested that SL might be a good example of a simulated neo-liberal state or libertarian experiment. >I am just wondering if this is a fair and accurate comment ? Second Life is not remotely ground-breaking in this regard. We went through all this in the early 1990s with text worlds. If you really want to understand this stuff, you need to read up on LambdaMOO. This is the article that will give you a sense of why: http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle_vv.html . >And is it possible for us to discuss about these themes email. It is, but you're writing this, not me. Richard
> _ Appendix
85 Bongani Muchemwa <bomuch@gmail.com> Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 8:04PM To: "Richard A. Bartle" rabartle@essex.ac.uk SECOND LIFE >'how the California ideology has influenced a virtual city.â&#x20AC;&#x2DC; It's not really architectural, it's more urban planning. In my experience, architects are disappointed with SL because it frees up creativity yet people don't take advantage of that creativity. They look too much like real houses for reasons nothing to do with why real houses look like real houses. >I have been reading the book - coming of age in second life a book by TomBoellstorff Hmm. You haven't got as far as the back cover, then? >I read the book a couple of month ago, and have recently gone back to it. There is one paragraph in which Tom says '' Virtual worlds raise the possibility of a new degree of control over culture. The platform (second life) can laterally encode assumptions about virtual worlds: the technology does not wholly determine the nature of society, though it may determine the parameters within which society may develop'â&#x20AC;&#x2DC; Do you think their (linden lab) assumptions have contributed to the observable lack of creativity in the architectural side of things and perhaps in the organisation of everyday life in second life. What I have observed in second life is a lot of thrill seeking - which am not against, but do you think that may be people online are still at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs...so the liberties and the opportunities to create an alternative are still in the arena of thrills hence places like clubs, sex dungeons are quite popular. Making money is also one of the motives for many logging into second life. Therefore for users to be creative they might need to get to the top of Maslow's Pyramid metaphorically speaking. so people are too busy having fun to engage with creativity, one person said to me that ''second life is fun without building'' is this a fair assessment?
In my experience Architecture and Urban planning / design have overlaps and influence each other in the real world.It seem the planning strategy is really based on the notions of individualism hence one can observe an urban sprawl. My question here goes back to the idea of the California ideology...is this somehow related ''Libertarianism and urban sprawl'â&#x20AC;&#x2DC; Was this ever apparent in the MUDs, I understand that people could create their own individual spaces. My next section in the dissertation will look at the Political economy of second life...I spoke Tom a few weeks ago about the political side of second life again I was trying to verify that second life has been influenced by the California ideology and what effect that has on the way people build, interact...and so on. This is what he said ''I think it's a bit too much to say that "SL might be a good example of a simulated neoliberal state or libertarian experiment." The issue is the platform doesn't determine the social form. It is definitely *not* a simulated neoliberal state - governance in sl doesn't work like a state in that sense, though there are some interesting overlaps for sure. And there are libertarian experiments in sl, but also all other kinds of things - religious communities, kinship networks, etc. In that respect it's like the internet in general - hard to say it "is" any one thing because people do lots of different things, and usually things not expected by linden lab. So I think your idea of "influence" is the right way to go - not "determination" - rarely are things determined in a single way.'' What do you think about what he said? I was also wondering how reward works in virtual worlds like second life because they are different to platforms like the Sims. Thank you Bongani E Muchemwa 5th year Master of Architecture student University of Westminster London England.
> _ Appendix
86 Richard A. Bartle <rabartle@essex.ac.uk> Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 8:55 AM To: Bongani Muchemwa bomuch@gmail.com SECOND LIFE BONGANI >I read the book a couple of month ago, and have recently gone back to it. Well if you look at the back cover, you'll see that I read it pre-publication and endorsed it. So yes, I do know about this. >Do you think their (linden lab) assumptions have contributed to the observable lack of creativity in the architectural side of things and perhaps in the organisation of everyday life in second life. Yes, but not in the way you mean it. Software has an "architecture". It's the software architecture â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the affordances that SL provides the user - that has the greatest impact on the user's creativity. In other words, the architectural possibilities within the world is dependent on the architecture of the software sustaining the world. The software acts as the virtual world's physics. >do you think that may be people online are still at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs...so the liberties and the opportunities to create an alternative are still in the arena of thrills hence places like clubs, sex dungeons are quite popular. This is to do with wanting to engage in activities that break the norms of wider society and finding like-minded people with whom to engage in them. We learned from the days of LambdaMOO that all activities in social worlds (that is, virtual worlds with no game component) come down to one of four things: 1) Making games within the non-game world. 2) Creating objects and functionality as conversation pieces. 3) Sex. 2) In-world politics (essentially, arguing about the distribution of the limited resources available to players).
>Making money is also one of the motives for many logging into second life. This is something the old textual worlds didn't have, because they didn't have as many players. However, it should be noted that very few people actually earn a living from SL. >so people are too busy having fun to engage with creativity People who don't find creativity fun probably shouldn't be creating anyway. >one person said to me that ''second life is fun without building'' is this a fair assessment? [The statement is ambiguous. Do you mean "SL is fun already, you don't have to build stuff to make it fun" or "SL is fun without building but no fun with building"? >My question here goes back to the idea of the California ideology...is this somehow related ''Libertarianism and urban sprawl'â&#x20AC;&#x2DC; It's not a California ideology perse. However, in the USA at least, people who have that ideology often wind up in California because it's friendly to it. Virtual worlds have always been about freedom to be yourself, right from the very first one (which, since I co-wrote it, I can say with some (authority). The impetus came out of the British class system, believe it or not, but it wasn't unique to us. If you want to know some of the background to virtual worlds, see this talk I gave at Austin GDC in 2010: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1013804/MUD-Messrs-Bartle-and-Trubshaw (video and slides) http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/RAB%20GDC%20Online.pdf (slides only). >Was this ever apparent in the MUDs, I understand that people could create their own individual spaces.
> _ Appendix
87 Yes, but because they had a different underlying data structure for locations, the "sprawl" was less noticeable. For example, if you walked intoa room and saw a TV set, there could be a thousand more rooms inside that TV set. Then again, it could just be a TV set. If you're interested in the differences between physical models for text and graphical worlds (essentially, node=based versus grid-based), I can send you a copy of a paper I wrote on the subject a while back. >I was trying to verify that second life has been influenced by the California ideology It was influenced by some ideas that came out of California https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=d654c5693d&v iew=pt&q=rabartle%40essex.ac.uk&qs=true&sâ&#x20AC;Ś 5/5 influenced Linden Labs. Hmm, the more I read of what you're trying to do here, the more I think you need to read www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Virtual-Worlds-Linden-Second/dp/0801447461 . >This is what he said ''I think it's a bit too much to say that "SL might be a good example of a simulated neo-liberal state or libertarian experiment." That's always going to be the case. Whether they like it or not, Linden Labs are SL's gods, not their government. They can't escape that. >I was also wondering how reward works in virtual worlds like second life It's all intrinsic. There's no gameplay, so the reward is in the doing and the experiencing itself. Richard
> _ Appendix
88 Correspondence with Professor Tom Boellstroff: The author of Second life coming of age: an Anthropologist explores the Virtually Human. (email interview) (please see the following pages for email correspondence)
To: bomuch@gmail.com Hello! I will be in Indonesia September 23 - October 3. I may not be able to read or respond to your email until a couple days after my return. I'll get back to you as fast as I can! Tom Boellstorff <tboellst@uci.edu> Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 1:00 AM To: bongani muchemwa bomuch@gmail.com
Dear Professor Boellstorff I have read your book - coming of age in second life, which I enjoyed very much. I have also been reading Fred turner's From Counter-culture to cyber culture, and a couple of weeks ago i had the pleasure of chatting with Dr Richard Barbrook about second life and the Californian ideology. I am a masters student at the university of Westminster school of architecture in London, and am preparing to write a dissertation entailed: 'how the California ideology has influenced a virtual city.‘ I have set up a an account in second life, and for the past 6 months i have been exploring and making observations. During the my title talk with Dr Barbrook he suggested that SL might be a good example of a simulated neoliberal state or libertarian experiment. I am just wondering if this is a fair and accurate comment ? And is it possible for us to discuss about these themes via Skype. Bongani E Muchemwa 5 year March Architecture student University of Westminster London England.
Hello! I'm traveling so this will have to be short. I think it's a bit too much to say that "SL might be a good example of a simulated neo-liberal state or libertarian experiment." The issue is the platform doesn't determine the social form. It is definitely *not* a simulated neoliberal state - governance in sl doesn't work like a state in that sense, though there are some interesting overlaps for sure. And there are libertarian experiments in sl, but also all other kinds of things - religious communities, kinship networks, etc. In that respect it's like the internet in general - hard to say it "is" any one thing because people do lots of different things, and usually things not expected by linden lab. So I think your idea of "influence" is the right way to go - not "determination" - rarely are things determined in a single way. Okay, I have to run! I am on sabbatical until January 2013; at that point if you want to talk to me during my office hours using Skype or regular phone, go to my online office hours signup sheet (http://tinyurl.com/9eff6uc) and set a time. In the “comments” line put in the Skype address or phone number where you would like me to call you. Note that all times are Pacific Standard Time (UTC−8:00, but UTC−7:00 during Daylight Savings Time which is between March 10 and November 3). Take care and best of luck on your research! All the best, Tom Boellstroff tom boellstorff/professor/department of anthropology/university of california/irvine/website
> _ Appendix
89 Correspondence with Dr Richard Barbrook : the co-author of The Californian ideology (an interview at his house) (please see the enclosed DVD for our conversations) (This is just is a small fragment of the conversation)
Bongani (author)-I have been second life 3 months, and am looking into how it works using your article the Californian ideology as a framework. Or rather asking the question has Second life been influenced by the Californian ideology. Barbrook - I remember in the mid 1990s when i was teaching in Harrow (Westminster Uni) my friends where into M.U.Ds and there where graphic versions of that and these are the precursor to that. And what he was using it for was to pick up rather fat American women, these where people working in universities with free internet. Barbrook - The Californian ideology came about because, I and this guy Andy Cameroon, we were lefties, and I had a lot of friends who were involved with the internet. And they were not in favour of privatising the railways, but as soon as it came to the internet they started spouting out 'free market' nonsense. ‘Neoliberal toddle’. And that was because they were reading wired magazine. We wrote it because it was the dominant ideology coming out of America. So we decided to write an article critiquing.... This particular type of leftism came from California. Having lived in California over summer, it was a sort of weird mixture of hippies and entrepreneurs..... Bongani (author) - you say it's came from Californian.
Barbrook - Yes it's in the bay area, Silicon Valley area of California. When I did my PHD in 1982 the year of the Brixton riots, I had been there, i mean the 60s were just 30 40 year ago then. It was even more obvious that there was a disjunction - on the other hand there was the talk of 'lets make loads of money, smoke a lot of cocaine, lets have fun' Silicon valley values. And on the other side that old hippie stuff of macrobiotics and Yeats, and the interesting thing is the way they overlap. You meet people who had burnt down their army training centres and university...by the time i meet them they were gun-woo capitalists. They had moved across from Maoism to neoliberals without noticing.....They where into Mao but they went into virtual reality and smart drugs. But they can from a leftist perspective....What Fred agues is that they were never leftist at all he might be right. But I think people like Kevin Kelly and Risoto we not. When I was there I meet people who went around hippie communes, they move around Maoist sect. They did L.S.D….the punters went round everything. Technically, they are not strictly leftist but in a European point of view they looked the same. Bongani (author) - I was watching Adam Curtis's Film all watched over by machines of love and grace. Barbrook (author) - He quoted me... Bongani (author) - he traces some of the stuff to Ayn Rand. Is that the right wing side of the Californian ideology? Barbook - The thing that this social Darwinist point of view or what we call Neoliberalism in Europe goes back in America in the 19 century…...so in a way it never went away....in a certain way America was set up by liberals Founded by people who owned other people as privet property. 'The right to privet property' Bongani (author) - well there is something 'there' because Second life is really based on privet property right.
> _ Appendix
90 Barbrook - There is no property right, well because there is nothing there. It’s just code, it's all fantasy free market....... it's interesting going back to my father who was a right wing labour, for his generation Americas was the third way. Big business and big government get together to run this heavily regulated economy. When the hippie generation come along you get this new right and new right emerging. In a way it's not surprising that they blend... Barbrook - Where in California I came across were gay and took drugs, but were ‘free marketeirs’, particularly if there where form Silicon Valley. One of the things that we wanted to do, going back to the Californian ideology was to bring out that California was created buy the state. The water system for the start, the whole place would the desert if it wasn't for the state. The universities, the high ways all funded buy the defence budget. The Defence budget spins it off into privet businesses. So it's an ideology because its misapprehension of reality, it doesn't fit with reality..... Bongani (author) - something I always here from Americans is that they don't want government because they are individuals especially on TV ‘Fox News’. Barbrook - ......So this is a denial that the state is there. So it's a wilful blindness. They are in favour of cutting welfare especially for black people expect for Medicare. Because that can't afford it...in other words is a Californian hypocrisy because that whole thing is funded by the state..... Barbrook - America had a very radical period particularly in the bay area, they had urban terrorism, the Black Panther party, early gay movement, feminism and the whole LSD hippie culture. In a way it all got crushed by the FBI. I meet people there who had tanks sent to them by Ronald Regan. ‘He actually sent tanks to crush student rebellion. These people also involved with Maoist groups but they got disillusioned. And off cause Silicon Valley took off, so the same people where making money out of it.
Barbrook -...two years ago i was in California and Fred said come and look at this. We went around see Facebook’s office, in the reception behind the desk there was this clenched fist. And off cause they thought Facebook is the revolution. There was no scene of irony at all. Bongani (author) - How did the notions of technology become part of 'American politics' ? Barbrook - McLuhan was always popular in the 60s.patiocurly for those whose where involved with Computing and the internet....in a way new technology becomes a substitute for social change so you if you read McLuhan technology in fact is the social change...The Russians had communism so they declared we have cybernetic communism because they said the internet was the new society in relation to 1950.Then the Americans said oh ******** lets invent the internet first. so story then comes out that the internet is going to be used to fight the Russian but in fact it's to beat the Russian in the race for the future. So the there is a hippie version of this, and the Russian version of this could be like a Maoist commune mediated by networked communications technology. So by the late 80s they start to resemble neo-liberalism, so libertarianism fits quite nicely...So you get people like Ronald Regan’s former speech writer praising apple, then off cause just a bunch of hippie ‘coc heads’. So the right saw the free markets in these companies and increasingly those companies took that ideology on….The Austrian school economics in Europe is seen as right wing they saw it at some how radical. Bongani (author) - so is Cybernetics a vehicle to eradicate hierarchies ‘of big government and big business’?
> _ Appendix
91 Barbrook - It depends who you're talking to, Cybernetics is very hierarchical it means steersman. So if you’re talking to Norbert Weiner who is a socialist pacifist, you have to have flows of information and feed back is not coming from above it is a collectivist organisation. So the Russians picked up on this. Critics of the Stalinist system saw this technology as an argument to democratise the Soviet Union so they closed the program down, especially in the Czech Republic were it was very popular with reformers. The Americas on the other hand kind of embrace it, because they invented it. The new left picks up on Cybernetic communism, so it was floating around......However it's really about Marshall McLuhan’s idea that we are moving from print based media to electronic media... The hippie version is that we will all be connected through our televisions.. So the 90s and 80s version of this become dominant - free markets and networks go together...... Bongani (author) - My idea was to frame my understanding of second life though the Californian ideology. ‘I am trying to trace these ideas within second life’. Barbrook -....these ideas sound the same in American eyes and off cause very different to us... in America poor people protest against free health care...that’s insanity. So there is something specific in American culture, especially with the last 40 years. Liberalism in the European scene takes over politics. In the 50-60 there was the third way - big business and big government "fordism", 60-70 there was this radical leftist movements - Black Panther, anarchy communism, gay movements, and feminism and so on. And the when Regan 'neoliberalism' come along, He becomes the default ideology despite the fact that America government is a huge corporation and a huge government..... Bongani (author) - So this is about individualism as well right… Barbrook - yeah but they are being quite collectivst. So it's an ideology. So what they say and what they are actually doing...there is a massive disjunction.
Bongani (author) – Because, Second life has a slogan that says your world your imagination. So when you walk around in there every place is owned by a business. The contradiction is it's not your world but someone else's world..... Barbrook - going back to Ayan Rand.. In that way you might say it's an objectivist paradise.. Forget democracy it's all based on free markets and it's all owned by a corporation and everything in there is worthless. Bongani (author) - and everyone in there claims to be a ‘creative’. Barbrook - read class of there new. There is always a group of people who claim to be creating the future in the present. Especially in California....
> _ Notes
Interviews in SL. . Image of ‘Alt avi’ Umuntu 1 by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
> _ Appendix >_ Interview With Edward in SL (just a sample)
[05:31] Edward Starsmith: Hello. Welcome to SL. [05:37] umuntu1: hi [05:37] umuntu1: am looking to buy some land [05:38] umuntu1: do you have landmark your self [05:38] Edward Starsmith: I'm afraid I don't. [05:38] Edward Starsmith: I would recommend renting for a while and see if you like it before you decide to buy. [05:38] umuntu1: do you rent [05:39] Edward Starsmith: I do now. I've also owned land. [05:39] Edward Starsmith: To be honest, there is not much difference in the price. [05:39] umuntu1: how long ago did you get your landd [05:40] Edward Starsmith: Well, I was fortunate enough to find a friend early who let me build on her land. [05:40] umuntu1: ahh nice [05:40] Edward Starsmith: I guess I had been here about 6 months before I decided to rent a place of my own. [05:41] umuntu1: it's nice to have some where to call home right [05:41] Edward Starsmith: It's nice, but SL can be fun without it. [05:41] umuntu1: do you feel like u belong now that you have your own place [05:42] umuntu1: really how i feel like i need my own space somehow [05:42] Edward Starsmith: I think I felt I belonged before I decided to get my own place. [05:43] umuntu1: so what u doing here [05:43] umuntu1: shopping ? [05:44] Edward Starsmith: No. This area belongs to NCI. I'm a helper with that group. I'm just hanging out, but I'm going to need to go soon. [05:44] Edward Starsmith: NCI = New Citizens Incorporated [05:45] umuntu1: oh do u get paid [05:45] Edward Starsmith: Only in the gratitude of helping people. [05:45] Edward Starsmith: I don't really make a lot of money here. [05:45] umuntu1: oh thats nice [05:46] umuntu1: do you people who do [05:46] Edward Starsmith: I do a few custom builds from time to time. That's all the income I have. [05:47] Edward Starsmith: Some people work in clubs and such. They don't make a lot of money. [05:47] umuntu1: so your an architect [05:47] Edward Starsmith: The real money makers are the people who make things, clothing, animation, scripts [05:48] umuntu1: the creatives [05:48] umuntu1: then [05:48] umuntu1: can i add you as a friend [05:49] Edward Starsmith: If you wish. [05:50] Edward Starsmith: You are missing a hand. [05:50] umuntu1: we should talk about this and u can fill me in into how things work [05:50] Edward Starsmith: I would like to, but I'm about to log out. It's time for me to go. [05:50] umuntu1: ok see you later [05:50] Edward Starsmith: Take care. Enjoy your SL
92
> _ Nudity in soho (just a sample)
[03:52] McMillan: because you never muted her [03:52] ღ Anthea Ziska ღ : hi MaxMell [03:52] ღ Anthea Ziska ღ : ohhhh [03:52] MaxMell: hi ziska [03:53] ღ Anthea Ziska ღ : have you then [03:53] McMillan: off course [03:53] ღ Anthea Ziska ღ : it`s Anthea [03:53] Jessica Wabbit: I don't block anyone. I'm too nosey to do that :-) [03:53] MaxMell: me call u athea or ziska,, :) [03:53] McMillan: me call you moron [03:53] ｋℐтţч: i think he is the first ever person i know thats muted me [03:54] ღ Anthea Ziska ღ : well Ziska is my Girlfriends name [03:54] Jessica Wabbit: I'm sure half of SL has me blocked - haha [03:54] MaxMell: haha [03:54] MaxMell: :) [03:54] ღ Anthea Ziska ღ : laughs [03:54] ｋℐтţч: *XD* [03:54] ღ Anthea Ziska ღ : i havent Jess [03:54] Jessica Wabbit: I never cared about that half anyway :-) [03:54] ღ Anthea Ziska ღ : so if you call me Anthea [03:54] Jessica Wabbit: Hehe, Anthea [03:55] ｋℐтţч: mcmillan mutd me because he was moanin one day and i called him a whiny bitch [03:55] Jessica Wabbit: Haha [03:55] ｋℐтţч: all he ever does is moan [03:55] Anastasia Canonmill: This green box area by the hub allows you to set your home position to London City. Just join the group and then use World > Set Home Here [03:56] Jessica Wabbit: Are you moaning about him moaning? Blocked. Haha [03:56] ｋℐтţч: im not moanin just makin a point [03:56] Anastasia Canonmill: If you are stuck and need help, please ask a member of London Support. Don't accept things from people you don't know. They can be malware or just junk. [03:56] Jessica Wabbit: No avatars [03:56] Jessica Wabbit: No avatars with humans behind them anyway [03:57] McMillan: I have this special way of enjoying sl, i mute most morons, and i know i can hear them by clicking "show muted text" if the idiocracy goes to far, i unclick [03:57] Jessica Wabbit: My block list is squeaky clean. I just a have a few of the annoying group inviters and spammy objects in the list [03:57] Allen79: Sorry about that everyone [03:57] ღ Anthea Ziska ღ : Ziska is on [03:57] ღ Anthea Ziska ღ : heading home [03:57] Allen79: That was an unexpected tp
93
> _ Nudity in soho (just a sample)
[03:57] ｋℐтţч: •´¨*•.¸.♥ Bye Bye ♥.¸.•*¨`• [03:57] ｋℐтţч: anthea [03:57] Jessica Wabbit: Showing muted text defeats the point of muting [03:57] McMillanMcMillan hopes that Jojo likes what she sees [03:57] Jessica Wabbit: Muting is hiding text [03:58] ｋℐтţч: exactly wabbit [03:58] McMillan: muting is erasing morons from the only life, you can choose to do so [03:58] Jessica Wabbit: I have everyone on SL muted then. I just choose to see their text [03:58] ｋℐтţч: *GIGGLES* :)~~~~ [03:59] ｋℐтţч: so in other words macmillan ur nosey :P [03:59] Lissia: ★★«´¯`•.¸¸•※☆ ℒ ຣ ຣ ą ☆※•¸¸.•´¯`»★★ [03:59] Jessica Wabbit: Read that but choose to keep it hiden from view [03:59] McMillan: kumori, you were muted because of sexually childish play here in London, nothing else [03:59] Jessica Wabbit: chose [03:59] RealEvil: cute avi Kitty [04:00] ｋℐтţч: :◯ like nearly everyone does that here [04:00] ｋℐтţч: thankies real :D [04:00] McMillan: i could send you the log, but i wont do the effort for people like you [04:00] ｋℐтţч: i dnt want it anyway i know what o.O i was doin [04:00] umuntu3: ummmm tense [04:01] Jessica Wabbit: I don't keep chat logs. I never need to refer back and they are a source of local chat lag with all the disk writes [04:01] Jessica Wabbit: Not a major source, but it contributes locally [04:02] popstarandy: hi all [04:02] Jessica Wabbit: Hiya [04:02] kumori Viper: fondled RealEvil's private parts and loved it! [04:02] MaxMell: hy [04:02] popstarandy: hi jess [04:02] RealEvil: :◯ [04:02] ｋℐтţч: hehehe [04:03] popstarandy: how r u all [04:03] kumori Viper: squeezed RealEvil's tight ass!!! [04:03] Jessica Wabbit: Good thanks [04:03] MaxMell: fine n u [04:03] RealEvil: Aaahh !!!!! [04:03] popstarandy: lol [04:03] RealEvil: look don't touch
94
> _ Nudity in soho (just a sample)
[04:03] MaxMell: hahaha [04:03] ｋℐтţч: *GIGGLES* :)~~~~ [04:03] Jessica Wabbit: I hope you're not a tightarse in the pub when it's your round [04:03] umuntu3: lol [04:04] ｋℐтţч: real knows im a toucher not a looker :P [04:04] McMillan: I hope a london support team would ask people, even if they are member of the elite clique to respect the sim rules [04:04] RealEvil: mhm [04:04] umuntu3: wht are the sim rules [ [04:04] MaxMell: sim rules,,, [04:05] Jessica Wabbit: Go to the World menu and then to "about land" [04:05] umuntu3: who are these elite the queen [04:05] Jessica Wabbit: Then the Covenant tab [04:05] Jessica Wabbit: Rules in there [04:05] umuntu3: i will have a look [04:05] McMillan: they are repeated above the entrance of the shop [04:05] McMillan: No Nudity, sex or offensive language [04:05] Jessica Wabbit: Some headlnes above the shop, yes [04:06] Jessica Wabbit: But the full list is in the covenant [04:06] Jessica Wabbit: Common sense really [04:06] Jessica Wabbit: Just try not to spam or bug people [04:06] McMillan: kumori Viper: fondled RealEvil's private parts and loved it! [04:06] McMillan: that is sexual rp and offensive language [04:06] ｋℐтţч: so........ [04:07] RealEvil: go read a book dude [04:07] Jessica Wabbit: There's no "no nudity" rule [04:07] RealEvil: wtf is wrong with u? [04:07] Jessica Wabbit: This is a M sim. Everyone should be over 18 [04:07] McMillan: a sim official should ask people not to use such language [04:07] ｋℐтţч: i clicked and it said it [04:07] ｋℐтţч: so ban the clicky part not me [04:08] Jessica Wabbit: The Covenant changes more often than the textures on walls :-) [04:08] umuntu3: does anyone know who owns this place [04:08] Jessica Wabbit: Torric Rodas and Billy A [04:08] McMillan: the rules above the entrance have never changed [04:08] Jessica Wabbit: I forget how to spell Billy's sirname [04:08] Jason Schoon: Arentire [04:08] Jessica Wabbit: It's easier tio change the covenant text than the texture [04:09] Jessica Wabbit: Nudity is frowned upon and people could be asked to go to the new A-rated sim, but it's not strictly against the rules
95
> _ Nudity in soho (just a sample)
[04:03] MaxMell: hahaha [04:03] ｋℐтţч: *GIGGLES* :)~~~~ [04:03] Jessica Wabbit: I hope you're not a tightarse in the pub when it's your round [04:03] umuntu3: lol [04:04] ｋℐтţч: real knows im a toucher not a looker :P [04:04] McMillan: I hope a london support team would ask people, even if they are member of the elite clique to respect the sim rules [04:04] RealEvil: mhm [04:04] umuntu3: wht are the sim rules [ [04:04] MaxMell: sim rules,,, [04:05] Jessica Wabbit: Go to the World menu and then to "about land" [04:05] umuntu3: who are these elite the queen [04:05] Jessica Wabbit: Then the Covenant tab [04:05] Jessica Wabbit: Rules in there [04:05] umuntu3: i will have a look [04:05] McMillan: they are repeated above the entrance of the shop [04:05] McMillan: No Nudity, sex or offensive language [04:05] Jessica Wabbit: Some headlnes above the shop, yes [04:06] Jessica Wabbit: But the full list is in the covenant [04:06] Jessica Wabbit: Common sense really [04:06] Jessica Wabbit: Just try not to spam or bug people [04:06] McMillan: kumori Viper: fondled RealEvil's private parts and loved it! [04:06] McMillan: that is sexual rp and offensive language [04:06] ｋℐтţч: so........ [04:07] RealEvil: go read a book dude [04:07] Jessica Wabbit: There's no "no nudity" rule [04:07] RealEvil: wtf is wrong with u? [04:07] Jessica Wabbit: This is a M sim. Everyone should be over 18 [04:07] McMillan: a sim official should ask people not to use such language [04:07] ｋℐтţч: i clicked and it said it [04:07] ｋℐтţч: so ban the clicky part not me [04:08] Jessica Wabbit: The Covenant changes more often than the textures on walls :-) [04:08] umuntu3: does anyone know who owns this place [04:08] Jessica Wabbit: Torric Rodas and Billy A [04:08] McMillan: the rules above the entrance have never changed [04:08] Jessica Wabbit: I forget how to spell Billy's sirname [04:08] Jason Schoon: Arentire [04:08] Jessica Wabbit: It's easier tio change the covenant text than the texture [04:09] Jessica Wabbit: Nudity is frowned upon and people could be asked to go to the new A-rated sim, but it's not strictly against the rules
95
> _ glossary
Brb – Be right back Real life – non second life interaction, outside the virtual world SL – second life Sim – simulation ‘a region or place in second life) Avi – avatar Alt Avi – alternative avatar aquired by having a second, third and so on account os scond life RL - Real life LOL – laugh out loud. Dwell/ dwell count – the number of people visiting a sim or region in second life or the rate of traffic. MUDs - Multi-User Dungeons MMOG - massively multiplayer online game MMORPG - Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
96
> _ Notes and bibliography
Image book. . Image of ‘Alt avi’ Umuntu 1 by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012
97
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemwa Avatar in second life 20012
98
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
99
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
100
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
101
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw - in second life 20012
102
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
103
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
104
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
105
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
106
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
107
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
108
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
109
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
110
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
111
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
112
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
113
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
114
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
115
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
116
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
117
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
118
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
119
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
120
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
121
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
122
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
123
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
124
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
125
.
Image by author Bongani Muchemw â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Avatar Umuntu 3 in second life 20012
. Image of ‘Alt avi’ Umuntu 1 by author Bongani Muchemwa 2012