I'm a big fan of Apple's design and my wife is going to make my dreams come true — in the not-so-distant future, I'll be visiting my very first Apple Store.
My main rig is a Windows-powered (XP not Vista thankyouverymuch) PC, but I like Mac OS X on my laptop.
I like how even when some "pundits" (rhymes with you-know-what) acrimoniously attack Apple and/or get things totally wrong in hindsight, it just gives Apple more popularity. Steve Jobs' baby has certainly crossed over from geek bedrooms into the sidewalks the world over, with iPods both an unassumingly everyday yet magically ubiquitous machine. iPods and Macs as tools possess an ongoing utility which can be taken for granted, and is mostly vexing to describe in words, but hard to avoid reacting to.
Second Life is hard to avoid reacting to, too.
Part of my problem with Second Life right now is that unlike water, it's not ubiquitous enough. I know there's lots of words about "crossing the chasm", substance of which I can take to heart but ultimately too much wasteful fluff which is an affront to Moore (that's Geoffrey, not Gordon nor Patrick): simple reality is, if something's around you constantly, it becomes normal. Especially if you grow up with it. This, unfortunately, includes unpleasant experiences like longterm prison sentences, but also describes the wonders of Second Life.
Novelty dampens, the "gee-whiz" factor rots as quickly as Philip K. Dick uses the word "ash" to describe death & decay — and some of what we're left with and soon discard is news/media crap.
Yes, you heard me.
The list of journalists who write about Second Life but have never been inworld, or poked inworld once or twice but haven't really lived a Second Life, is embarrassing unto itself. Instead of offering lame excuses like "being rushed for time", I outright consider it a superior non-action — morally and tactically — to not write rubbish. Write what's right from experience, not lazy-proxy. Don't put "breaking the story" above "savoring the sensations, lag and all". Don't be lazy and cop another "Get a first life! Hehe" line from another lethargic journo — that has all the grace of a manatee using a Xerox machine to duplicate smudged carbon copies (do I smell verbal inbreeding?). Do cripple the BS.
I used to find it difficult to believe that large number of humans could collectively get things so wrong. The phundit (not sic — a sideways idea) in me says it's the opposite of "wisdom of the crowds" — the dumbasses of the masses. And yet, for all my cheeky-grinned snark (naw, you didn't think this friendly AI could go rampant, didja?), I don't heap blame… because that's how the cycles have always gone for humanity.
We no longer call automobiles "horseless carriages", nor treat them with wide-eyed gawkership. Sure, there's gorgeously-styled concepts and prototypes, but on the whole, cars are… there, and we don't double-take. It is this way with all great inventions which are popularly embraced — including books, radio, TV, and newer media still. And so it shall be with our computer worlds. Kraftwerk, godfathers of hip-hop (among other musical styles 
) saw it coming.
Need a nearer example? OKAY.
In hindsight, and it'll prolly take me longer than I hope, future generations will look back at the awkwardly dismissive views of Second Life and other virtual spaces like the dope-addled muddlings of minds too hazy to realize what a playful child easily does: it's about sharing experiences through technology and emotion.
The same pleasure you get from listening to a really great song on your iPod, that same joy you get enjoying a WindLight sunset with your lover — this is the most beautiful use of machines I can think of: using a tool to increase happiness.
Hey Torley,
I have a Google alert that tracks "Second Life." It turns up some interesting stuff from time to time … like your article today.
It is true. Usually, writers reveal early on that they have not been in-world, logged in for that one experience, or they are less than about 4 mo old in world (& usually attached to some business adventure). As soon as I see this, I know from experience they are going to have it wrong … wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. Yet, they wear this "I only know enough to be wrong" badge like it's from the queen herself.
Then there's another breed that writes with "authority" from the very beginning while all the time wearing a "pretender" sign on their back. Of course, those with any real time invested can see right through them to that "Pretender" sign. Usually the pretenders end their "storry" by ACTUALLY Bragging that they've gained all of this authoritative knowledge by research, chatting with an acquaintance, oh and yeah they logged in and freaked-out because (insert their reason). But it always translates to: because it takes them back to the days of being a child and NOT knowing everything AND finding out that they can become confused & a little unnerved by NEW — And OMG there's people in there … there's people in there behaving like oh uh people … the worst is that most of the people are those willing-to-talk people (which really freaks out a lot of "know it all's" who only want to collect robotic listeners) … … …
Ok umm i'm getting back down off the soap-box and handing your blog back over to you … but really … you have so got this right.
Enjoy have fun,
Marilla
hmmm . . . i ponder your words and pretty much agree with them all. plus you have a unique insight that most of us don't have, the internal look at the workings behind sl.
indeed, sl is so new still (like your ref to horseless carriages, which conjured images of the waste products and the metaphor for some journalists . . ) anyway, i digress *hold tight, another ener tangent*
i like your perspective on technology/emotion and sharing experiences. i go off the "deep end" and see sl as an attempt by us humans to become closer to our spiritual side. being able to share with anyone almost anywhere instantly is, to me, getting closer to achieving that higher vibrational form discussed in metaphysics (and actually very discussed in most religion if looked at less literally).
to me, and I think many others, sl rings true with what we are capable of becoming as spiritual beings.
thank you for the provocative post
"The same pleasure you get from listening to a really great song on your iPod, that same joy you get enjoying a WindLight sunset with your lover — this is the most beautiful use of machines I can think of: using a tool to increase happiness."
Thank you, Torley. This phrase really got to me. I wrestle with my love/hate relationship with SL®. You have given me an explanation that makes sense to me; makes it easier for me to accept it, and not feel guility spending so much time using it.
And "dumbass for the masses" ? LOL. I LOVE this one.
Keep up with the great writing,
Princess Ivory
You can extend the paragraph on "professional" journalists being ignorant of what they report on to all subjects.
Encountered this in my time as an IT manager at a television station, asked by technodummy reporters to interpret the rip-and-reads their equally ignorant producers were writing for them.
Only a few noticed the trend of technology rolling forwards and got on board, immersing in it instead of resisting it.
I worked my fingers to the bone writing up dirt-simple step-by-step procedures to perform basic tasks. Some appreciated the documentation, learned the basics, and built on that on their own, never afraid to hit the magical F1 key.
The others, well, one went so far as to throw my documentation in my face, and if that paper cut had cut just a quarter inch higher, I'd have lost an eye instead of getting a slash on my face.
There are the town criers of our age.
Those that get to know the subjects they report on, you listen to. And you engage them in conversation over their experience so you can learn from them.
Those that just beat the drums of panic and doom for the salespeople to stick between commercials, you just open your window and let the chamberpot fly.
If they duck the challenge of genuine direct engagement, preferring to remain one-way broadcast, well, it's pretty easy to shut that channel off and seek out the interactive and community-based information sources which can stand to defend its ever-flowing river of positions and reports.
Beautiful post!
I couldn't agree more Torley
It is so easy to sit on the sidelines and whinge about things that you have never experienced. The fact is that you could take ANY activity and make it look silly and pathetic if you wanted to - because human beings are all partially silly and pathetic. It's part of our very nature, isn't it??
Imagine something as innocuous as watching a man having an animated conversation in a phone booth - you can't hear what he is saying, but he is gesticulating wildly and looks decidedly absurd. without knowing the context of his conversation, it would be all too easy to conclude that he IS decidedly absurd.
It's the same with Second Life - peeking in from the outside, it would be too easy to conclude that it is silly and pathetic - but only because you have no context. We all know better - the richness of SL is something that can't be explained - it can only be experienced to be understood. The experiences, feelings, friendships, and learnings that we have in SL are very much real and valuable.
I think you are right - in future times, we will look back on virtual interactions like those in SL as the first steps toward defining a whole new way of interacting and communicating - or maybe more precisely - a significant step in the development of a new world of possibilities in interacting and communicating that is already underway! Like all innovations, it will suffer the slings and arrows of the entrenched, the ignorant, and the frightened.
It's a paradigm shift, in the way that term was meant to be used - a new set of assumptions and technologies that are changing our understanding of each other and the way we explain the world around us. Physical presence becomes less and less important with the passage of time. Younger generations think nothing of communicating important decisions and information in a text message - that 20 years ago would only have been considered in a face-to-face meeting.
Thing is - those generations GET it - it's part of their ethos and their world already - and I suspect that as SL and other virtual mediums develop, they will slide into them like into a comfortable pair of shoes. Second Life is simply making a more robust medium for what they are already doing in chat, text, voicechat, Facebook, etc. etc.
As for the entrenched, the ignorant, and the frightened - they will eventually be dragged along behind us - by the time Second Life is mainstream and established widely - they will be telling us that they knew it all along…
dd
I think that one major obstacle to getting Second Life to a more ubiquitous state is the steep initial learning curve. The tutorial for new users is awkward, easily broken, somewhat confusing, and ultimately, not very interesting.
Then, when you finally leave Help Island, you are often dropped into one of the "Newbie" zones which fall into a couple of different categories: a noisy place full of morons playing obscene gestures, an unpopulated sim full of vendors, or, just maybe, somewhere with some helpful people.
Overall, this does not make for an average user's first experience with Second Life to be a positive one.
Sorry Mr Journalist, you're not getting it, are you?…
The Spirit of Second Life® itself, Torley Linden, recently wrote about his experience with reading what journalists have to say about Second Life. I don't know if he had just read how badly misquoted Philip Linden had been early this week and, l…
Pretty good assessment, Torley. I have had the odd experience of anger at LL when reading lists and lists of comments by residents, often quite off topic, until I finally got it that it makes very little impact or has little effect on LL or SL for that matter. I also realized that these lists of comments more often than not echoed people's frustrations at all general SL problems, and not just the issue a post may have discussed or announced. Reading them would then work me up to the same level of frustration, and just before I splurge forth a similar response to the post listed responses, I would catch myself and think it through to a point where I realize its the old peer pressure that triggered the anger, not the actual post! Now I try and avoid the responses altogether if I can. Second Life is singularly unique in the user's experience, and though many point to new virtual worlds out there, few in my opinion have managed to do what Philip, you and others have achieved.
To have been allowed to be a part of this world has profoundly changed my life, as I discovered a whole tranche of creative ideas within myself that has led to a rediscovery of coding, a rediscovery of animation and 3D art born from the days when I plonked about with my Amiga computer, and generally a new appreciation for reefs and conservation and the whole concept of education through entertainment, all uniquely encompassed by the world of Second Life!
So despite moments of frustration the reality remains that SL made a lasting junkie out of me, and come what may, I am more excited today than I was as a noob. Hmmm, actually I find I am more a noob today than when I first started playing, as SL has all these layers for creativity that only time reveals
Keep up the great blog.
Torley, your website and your tutorials always bring joy to this SL resident. I also love your music here.
I love this post and the comments that encouraged it, especially ener's. indeed we are beyond our physical selves when we engage in our Second Life. Those who say to get an RL simply doesn't get our need to go beyond RL. Every evolved being won't mind something like SL as long as it engages and improve the psyche and the mind.
oh also, i agree with delicious' analogy…:)
@MarillaAnne: What do you use for your Google Alert? Just the word "Second Life" or other parameters too? I used to scour for just "Second Life" but there's so much coming in nowadays!
"As soon as I see this, I know from experience they are going to have it wrong … wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong." <– YES YES YES YES! You nailed it, and I don't understand why they waste their time and confuse readers by providing such sketchy and inaccurate accounts.
Nowadays though, the word "expert" is often meaningless. In the book The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss has a funny section about being a "perceived expert" and how easy it is to attain credibility within a few weeks. There's an upside and a downside to it, the downside being these "authorities" who are actually scammers, con artists, and not-useful loudmouths make many fake claims and dump on the clutter pile of non-info that is out there.
This is why within scanning the first few sentences of an article about Second Life, I'll almost certainly know if it has refreshing insights or is just regurgitating myths and fallacies from other badly-baked "articles". I do find humor in some the lack of quality, but could do without it.
More people should speak candidly about their childhood insecurities leading to part of why they're being so incomplete today. Some would say, "Oh, that's not professional", but "professional", like "expert", is a word that means so many different things and is largely useless in a practical sense unless you trust the person who's claiming to be one.
Thanks for getting on your soapbox, good to know how you feel!
@Ener: Seeing both inside and outside of Linden Lab has definitely helped me to put some threads together. One of Second Life's most powerful assets is getting us nearer to "emotion transfer" across remote distances, since we can share experiences even if we're thousands of miles apart.
@Princess: You're very welcome. I gotta use "dumbasses for the masses" more. I was watching George Carlin recently and that sorta inspired me.
@Crap: Glad to see what you blogged about this, on a related note! Thanx also for sharing your experiences… good gosh, that's awful. I know some great journalists who I wouldn't lump in the mediocre cloud, but sadly, encountering the suck which lies within that cloud is all-too-common. No more "hear ye, hear ye" for them — and no wonder those bad "professional" journos are so fearful of amateur bloggers, accusing them of not having "standards". Well, to that, I say being earnest is far more important than ego-dross!
@Botgirl: MESSAGE RECEIVED. THANK YOU.
@Delicious: Yup, and baseball is just a game with a stick and a ball. Yet look how many sports writers take it so seriously! Careers are built up around any field of great interest. Presently, we laugh at many advertisements for products/services in earlier eras, be it the 1800s or even the 1980s (all that big hair).
What a great comment that more ignorant journalists should read, and take to heart, before writing further blather about Second Life.
@Pandora: I agree that the learning curve needs to be much more of a gentle hill than a sharp ascent, and there's much improvement to be done. (There always will be.) I have a particular affinity for when little changes make a big difference, and there should be some marked "first-time experience" improvements within this quarter.
@Dumisani: I find it a shame when there are Residents who are quite understandably upset (I sympathize) but viciously attack Linden Lab. That just makes things worse, and is useless. People more often than not spout about their problems without considering the views of others — emotion often blindsides us from the bigger picture AND finer details. I get frustrated with problems too, and I look for ways to get them fixed faster… or at least workarounds. If something's within my immediate power to change, I tend to hop on it right away, and if not, I may be able to let the right Lindens know.
@Isadora: You're SO welcome, thanks a lot for letting me know!
Looking back on this will all be very intriguing. Thanks for sharing your stories!
Torley, I still have it set to: secondlife OR "Second Life" ; comprehensive; as it happens.
I've considered making a change but … instead i created a folder & filter and I've gotten pretty good at knowing if it's worth the click by reading the description. Also, I just don't get to everything … w/o guilt ;p
I do find the "as it happens" useful … even tho there are more emails … scrolling to view all the items is seldom needed. So, it is possible to make at a glance decisions.
Enjoy have fun,
Marilla <– first became interested in SL after reading about some autistic "chick" LOL … then i had to wait a year to afford a decent pc!