it's all coming from the mythos, 'virtual' or 'real'; therefore there is no ultimate difference. it is all steeped in significance, meaning, relation etc.
in other words, it all still has to be *perceived* to exist, whether it's 'real' or 'virtual' (bishop berkeley). what 'perceives'?...the one consciousness that is omniscient. Arlo Bensinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Krimel, You've probably seen this, but I'll send you the link in the off-chance you have not. It is an account of a "virtual rape", and the blurred lines between one's real and virtual identities, indeed to the pact where many would say "real" violence had been done. http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle.html Summary: A hacker using the pseudonym "Mr. Bungle" enters a chat (text only) room in a MOO. He takes advantage of the "emote" command to "make" other people in the room "do" violent and sexual things. Other users only see the emote [WARNING: this is graphic but demonstrates the power of words used] "Moondreamer shoves a knife into her vagina". Of course, the flesh-and-bones counterpart to Moondreamer typed no such thing. But to others in the room unfamiliar with the hacker's powers, it appears that Moondreamer is behaving exactly as her flesh-and-blood alter-ego wanted. Effect: "Months later, the woman in Seattle would confide to me that as she wrote those words posttraumatic tears were streaming down her face -- a real-life fact that should suffice to prove that the words' emotional content was no mere fiction." A while back in KoDT magazine, a comic that draws on "real-life" gaming stories to show the humor and bonds of role-players, Bob declares he can no longer run his favorite character. It seems the previous week a particularly nasty GM ran Bob's character through an adventure based on the movie Deliverance. The group's regular GM offers to erase it as if it never happened, "you can't erase something like that from a character sheet", Bob laments, "now if you'll excuse me, I think it will be a while before I can play again". Whether or not others here recognize in Bob something to which they can relate, the bottom line is we not only "become invested" in our avatars, our personae, our alter-egos, and our characters. We "become them". Or maybe, they become us. Or we become each other. Where do we draw the line between our "virtual" identity and our "real" identity? Indeed, what is our "real" identity? Where do our virtual-simulacra avatar-characters end, and a "real" us begin? Are you taking to "the real Arlo", or a virtuality? What's the difference? Arlo Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ --------------------------------- Make the switch to the world's best email. Get the new Yahoo!7 Mail now. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
