On Oct 22, 2010, at 4:59 AM, Alicia Henn wrote: > 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
First, <sarcasm>kudos</sarcasm> for calling it "Get Your Paws off of My Pixels: Personal Identity and Avatars as Self". My initial reaction is, "videoconferencing and message boards" The end. In other words, if our virtual representation in a videoconferencing setting or on a message board can be considered a representation of self (that is, an insult or attack on our representation is considered similar to the same done to our individual self) then what difference is it if our representation is an avatar in a virtual world? Upon reading further, I found it rather evocative: I could barely read a few lines without my thoughts drifting. I kept analyzing what we consider "rights" and "property". Americans have come to believe rights are given -- that government grants rights. Yet isn't that foolish? Of course I can say what's on my mind; stopping me from doing so is egregious. When rights are internalized, all this legalese on when they are applicable goes away. Consider also an actor or performer. In that case, they often do the reverse: permit their self to represent the non-self. If someone insulted Steven Colbert in the context of his fictional self, would that have the same impact as insulting Steven Colbert the real person? Should we really think Steven Colbert the character is the same thing as Steven Colbert the person? Then the whole talk about how virtual property is considered like real property. All my thoughts drifted to how "real property" is just virtual property unless you are in close physical proximity to it. Let's say you bought a piece of land and never set foot on it or even visited anyone near it. Then the courthouse burned down and all property records were lost. What did you really own? As an aside, if Second Life went out of business and shut off its servers, would people have the right to claim losses of virtual property? Speaking of virtual property, isn't it funny that I could lose $50,000 in a retirement account and that would be upsetting but perfectly acceptable, yet if my bank statement comes up $1 short I'll call them to complain? I'm heading down a path where I recognize property only as things I'm using right now. I consider an alternate world where things like the contents of my house are "things I left lying around the earth" so others are welcome to them. Alas, we expend an lot of psychological effort worrying about stuff we left lying around. ---Jason Olshefsky http://JayceLand.com/ http://JayceLand.com/blog/ -- 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.
