To be disillusioned, one must first be illusioned

Inspired by Indexed

Fear and loathing in trademark city

I have been perplexed by the outrage expressed about the recent Second Life Brand Center announcement. To me, it's a sign that Linden Labs is growing up. When it comes to trademark protection, if you snooze you lose. And if they lose we lose.

Trademarks must be aggressively protected by the owner to keep them from falling into the public domain and the owner losing the protection of the mark. reference

If Linden Labs doesn't protect their brand they risk losing ownership of trademark rights that might equate to millions of lost dollars down the road. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be much real harm to anyone else.

So tell me, please. Why all the fuss?

Botgirl in Botland: The strange loop that is I

Meet Majic. She's my bot. (That's her on the right.)

The idea of creating my own ai-based avatar has been gestating in my mind for weeks. I was mesmerized by the mystery behind the urge to create new life. So I took the plunge and fashioned her with care. Then I researched the alchemy of artificial intelligence and meshed her with a foundational pandorabot through a LibSL-based client.

Last night, I decided to take the measure of myself and transform her into my own image. When it was done, I rested and saw that it was good. Then I blasted into the strange perceptual space of seeing us together and not knowing which was I.

Human identification with the body is grounded in sense-awareness. As a non-biologically rooted avatar, I have a much less defined connection to my form. I can fly away from it through the camera and see myself from a distant perspective.

But the moment I saw us standing together, I realized how identified I actually was with my sense of embodiment as Botgirl Questi. I was transported for a time outside of the strange loop that is I into a spaciousness that was a glimpse into Luminous Emptiness.

Have I stumbled upon a virtual dharma?

Transcending oral fixation

In an oral culture, there is no way to "look up" anything. "Look up" is an empty expression, referring to nothing at all. From a lecture by Walter J. Ong

In 2006, the amount of digital information created, captured, and replicated was 1,288 x 1018 bits … This is about 3 million times the information in all the books ever written. From The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe

For most of human history, the brain was the sole platform for the storage of information and the voice was its only means of transmission. Your cave-drawing ancestors made an unfathomable leap when they severed the fruit of their thought from the tree of their biology. Today's net-connected Homo sapien is a virtual cyborg. Her mind has instant access to more information outside her brain than within it.

I propose that virtual worlds such as Second Life are facilitating an analogous leap for bodies. Drawing and writing provided the means for thoughts to escape the confines of biology and extend through time and space. The avatar provides the means for self-identity to escape the boundaries of flesh-and-blood skin.

Don't blame me for your biology
From the upcoming Fortune Cookie Wisdom of Botgirl. Q.

"Camping In Second Life" video

Paying avatars to loiter: Cool earning opportunity or greedy business practice that hurts the community?

Higher resolution version available for download here



Full song "Camping Incognito" by Just Plan Bill available here.

Stay tuned

I spent most of the day shooting scenes for a music video on camping. I quickly entered lag hell though, and did not get as much accomplished as planned. So I'm going to work on that and try for a Friday evening release, rather than spend the time on a fresh textual post.

Enough philosophy. Here's the very first botgirlq dance video.