second life

ever since seeing second life in the flesh I've been kind of intrigued by it. it's really interesting to see an entirely fictional online forum for interaction that strives to be realistic. The addition of avatars and three dimensions really fleshes out the experience, while making it more fake at the same time. A webcomic author (toothpastefordinner.com) whose blog i read recently explored second life and wrote about it, making some interesting observations.

the first thing that he noticed was that everyone in second life is attractive, the first concession to vanity that people make when they are online. having the freedom to create and entirely new persona allows for infinite freedom but really we all want the same thing, to be pretty. this leads to the next thing people like to do in second life, have sex. the funny thing about this is that they tend to pay money for this, ie to get the proper equipment one has to buy a penis. then they go to the online strip club and pay more for some virtual lap dancing. This is in contrast to the earlier forms of the internet where people were still having sex all the time but they did it for free once they found a willing partner. The new level of complexity is fabulous.

Of course there's also legitimate business going on in Second Life, but the porn was the first thing, just as any new media is capitalized first for sex and then for regular business. So, in the future the seedy conglomeration of strip clubs and sex shops will give way to a tidy street filled with upstanding business but one must never forget the sleaze that made it all happen.