I misunderstood what this was about when we were talking about it the other night. This seems to be about the avatar being an extension of your person, not the avatar being a person in its own right. It's arguing that damage to the avatar is at least analogous to damaging your body. That's at least a little less absurd than arguing that the avatar is a person.
So "Avatars *as self*" (from the title) is really a mis-statement of what the paper's about -- it's really about avatars as an *extension* or * manifestation* of self. By definition, an *avatar* can never be *identical*with the self. If they want to claim the avatar is a self, they need to find some word other than "avatar" to describe it. On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 7:01 AM, Charlene Brusso <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks for posting this, Alicia. The topic itself is provocative, but even > better are the journal links at the end: 'Games & Culture" & 'Journal of > Virtual Worlds Research' definitely go into my tickler file! > > -Charlene > > > On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 4:59 AM, Alicia Henn <[email protected]>wrote: > >> http://www.jmir.org/2010/3/e28/ >> This is an interesting article on rights for avatars. It seems reasonable >> and yet ludicrous at the same time. My officemate and I have had a great >> time expanding on it. - Alicia >> >> Get Your Paws off of My Pixels: Personal Identity and Avatars as Self >> >> Mark Alan Graber1,2, MD; Abraham David Graber3, BA >> ABSTRACT >> >> There is an astounding silence in the peer-reviewed literature regarding >> what rights a person ought to expect to retain when being represented by an >> avatar rather than a biological body. Before one can have meaningful ethical >> discussions about informed consent in virtual worlds, avatar bodily >> integrity, and so on, the status of avatars vis-à-vis the self must first be >> decided. We argue that as another manifestation of the individual, an >> individual’s avatar should have rights analogous to those of a biological >> body. Our strategy will be to show that (1) possessing a physical body is >> not a necessary condition for possessing rights; (2) rights are already >> extended to representations of a person to which no biological consciousness >> is attached; and (3) when imbued with intentionality, some prostheses become >> “self.” We will then argue that avatars meet all of the conditions necessary >> to be protected by rights similar to those enjoyed by a biological body. The >> structure of our argument will take the form of a conditional. We will argue >> that *if* a user considers an avatar an extension of the self, *then* the >> avatar has rights analogous to the rights of the user. Finally, we will >> discuss and resolve some of the objections to our position including >> conflicts that may arise when more than one individual considers an avatar >> to be part of the self. >> >> *(J Med Internet Res 2010;12(3):e28)* >> doi:10.2196/jmir.1299 >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]<r-spec%[email protected]> >> . >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. >> > > > > -- > Charlene Brusso > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<r-spec%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en. > -- -- eric scoles | [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en.
