Wonderland on Wonderland
The Times Review of BBC2 on Second Life Romance
There is no such thing as bad publicity - all publicity is good publicity they say! I subscribe to that notion to an extent and the depressing, if cautionary slant, of last night’s BBC report is a case in point. I wonder how many people logged inworld after the programme just to find out more? Maybe we’ll see some statistics that tell - if the then active Linden restarts did not put them off for good.
The documentary certainly raised issues - once again confusing the "augmentation" versus "immersion" debate. At first sight, the perils of online romance could be seen as excessive examples of immersion where escapism from real-life woes is the driving force, but I tend to think it might etter be considered "augmentation" of already existing unhappy lives. Second Life is essentially an extremely powerful evolution in communications mediums and is almost certainly a template for the way of the future. The question may be whether some human beings are emotionally and intellectually stable enough to cope with the implications of that change. Regretfully, I suspect many are not - it will be generations who grow up using virtual space as a natural resource that will define the "norm" for social interaction in such spaces. Today we are simply pioneers - early colonisers of a new plane of existence.
Sad though the programme was, it some ways it was like a documenary on drug addiction. Clearly the problems depicted were those inherant in the personalities of the subjects - not the cause or effect of the the chemistry itself. Second Life is no more responsible for these sorry dramas than any particular drug of choice is responsible for the effects on those who cannot manage their own habits. Addiction is a state of mind - constant immersion is the extreme example, but augmentationists also face the problem too. How much do we "use" what we have at our disposal as opposed to "depend" on it? It is a slippery slope and easy for some to move from one to the other.
Unlike the web, which is an information delivery system, abuse of the grid has the potential to create problems that reach out far beyond the inworld scenarios. People urgently need not so much as to be told about the potential of the metaverse as they need to be educated about the consequences of it. The implications of an international, always available, meeting space are tremendous. Social models, behaviour and relationships will change in a way that will make the like of 60s cultural change seem insignifiant. We will have to adapt - not to the by-product of new social trends, but the reality of a new platform for human expression and interaction.
I woud rather the cautionary tales emerge now than at a point too late to consider them properly. I hope I am aware of the implications of how I now interface with the world today, but dare not assume others are. Metaverse evangelism will, for now, have to remain tainted with a degree of social conscience regarding those ill-equipped to cope with the seriousness of the inter-personal changes it represents.
