Virtual Worlds Are Real
Me by my pond
In Second Life people often refer to life outside SL as RL, for real life. But according to the dictionary, the word real has these definitions:
- Being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verified existence; not illusory. Well, activities, events, and conversations do actually occur in Second Life, though the avatars representing each of us are made of pixels. In addition, I can verify what I see in SL, just as other people can verify for me what they are seeing. When people meet me on my property in SL, they are going to see the same scene as I do.
- Substantial: having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not imaginary; “the substantial world”; “a mere dream, neither substantial nor practical”. Though the virtual environment is not as substantial as the physical, it is certainly not imaginary or make believe. If it were, you wouldn’t be able to visit with me there and have a live conversation with me.
I’d like to propose that people stop using SL versus RL, and instead use SL versus IP, for In Person. In Second Life when we interact with others, we are often doing so in a very real way by talking with friends, trying to get information, learning from a class, or interacting in a business meeting. And even though when you are role playing in Second Life, you are intentionally not being yourself, you are pretending to be something else, the interaction is still real and varifyable, just as seeing a play in person.
Although in Second Life we are not there in person, we are there by representation of an avatar, and our very real act of typing or speaking and moving our avatar about.
I have a friend who keeps calling Second Life imaginary. Though I have had dreams that took place in Second Life, all my waking interaction there is not imaginary. If it were, I couldn’t meet with my friend Donnalyn and exchange objects with her. These objects are real. They are not physical, but they are varifiable by both of us, and anyone else standing around, and they do exist within the virtual environment.
So, virtual worlds offer very real experiences, different from IP, in person, but shared and varifable.
June 5th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
An absolutely fascinating discussion, verging on existentialism. In the context of the non-dualist view, the “In Person” reality – the human form – and even the world as perceived through our form, are themselves an illusion, created by the mind. The mind cannot comprehend the ultimate truth – that the universe, and us are actually consciousness – and therefore creates an the illusion of relativity, separateness, you, me, us, them etc (think I’ve got that right). So, and back to the point, since In Person reality is not as real as we like to think, whose to say that SL reality is any less “real”. In some senses, one could argue that since we are aware that it is actually a representation of reality, we need not be trapped by it’s illusory nature, in the same way we are by In Person reality. In other words, we needn’t become attached to our SL reality, and hence can rock more easily, and have more mojo (as it were!) Do reply please, cos this is a great thread to play with. Graeme Mackie IP!