Transumanar

New editor: Eschatoon

My newest multimetaversal avatar, Eschatoon, takes over as main editor of this blog. From our introduction at the Conference: The Future of Religions - Religions of the Future - June 4, 5, 2008:

A personal note. I am Giulio Prisco, also known as Giulio Perhaps in Second Life. I do not keep my RL and SL identities separate, and I am more of an “augmentationist” than an “immersionist”. SL is still a very primitive VR world compared to future VR worlds, and I cannot take seriously this PC screen with toons as an alternate reality. Yet.

But I see that different identities and personas can inhabit the same skull and should be given more elbow room and more freedom from each other. I think transhumanism is about offering more options to choose from, and have decided to take advantage of the option of having multiple avatars in SL and separate my mainstream business identity from my creative and “exotic” identity. This avatar will get all the fun. I wish to ask all those who have my other avatar in their friends list to add also this one.

This is the first public appearance of Eschatoon Magic, and I could not have chosen a better audience. My other avatar looks more or less like Giulio Prisco: old, fat and plain. But _I_ look like Giulio would like to look. Future technologies may give us options to choose our physical bodies, or migrate to VR and live in virtual bodies as conscious software. Future generations may roam the universe as immortal uploads, or “souls”, and perhaps _create and become_ “gods”.

Posted by on 07/18 at 08:14 AM

‘I am more of an “augmentationist” than an “immersionist”. SL is still a very primitive VR world compared to future VR worlds, and I cannot take seriously this PC screen with toons as an alternate reality. Yet.’

And yet you DO take seriously the notion that you become ‘augmented’ when in SL. What does that mean? That your natural abilities are increased whenever you are logged in? How can that be when:

A: In RL voice communication works perfectly but in SL voice communication works occasionally.

B) In RL your visual field is immersive and extends millions of light years whereas in SL your visual field is confined to your PC screen and extends a few dozen meters at best.

C) In RL you can gracefully navigate your environment but in SL navigation is kind of awkward.

D) In RL there is no pop up, no lag (apart from tiny relativistic effects recorded by atomic clocks) and no downtime for maintainance. As for Sl well…

The fact is that, here and now, you become LESS able during the time you ‘exist’ in SL, and so any talk about being ‘augmented’ is no more and no less absurd than those immersionists like me pretending our primaries do not matter.

Of course, you could point to R+D that will hopefully iron out all the problems I mentioned. But equally, I might refer to research into artificial intelligence, artificial life, brain reverse engineering and robotics that give weight to my vision of eventual autonomy for digital people.

In short, neither augmentists nor immersionists can be taken seriously. Yet.

Posted by on 07/21 at 03:21 PM
Hi Extro,

I am not using “augmented” in the sense that SL _alone_ offers me extra abilities (this is obviously false for the reasons you mention) but in the sense that SL _plus the rest of reality_ offers me extra abilities that I would not have without SL. Like attending yesterday’s event without travelling to Florida - I used to enjoy flying but now I just hate flying for obvious reasons related to ---deleted---, and I am happy that VR “augments” me in this sense.

Posted by eschatoon on 07/21 at 05:48 PM
OOPS - I see I missed your main point.

Immersionists like you pretending your primaries do not matter: I do not find it absurd at all. On the contrary, I find it intriguing and follow with interest and hope the research into artificial intelligence, artificial life, brain reverse engineering and robotics that give weight to your vision of eventual autonomy for digital people. And I think we will achieve it eventually. In this sense I think you digital people are pioneers.

Posted by eschatoon on 07/21 at 07:20 PM
‘SL _plus the rest of reality_ offers me extra abilities that I would not have without SL’.

I had an experience that supports what you say not so long ago. A person turned up at Sl-Transhumanist and began conversing in French with one of my friends. Now, I do not speak French and normally that would make it impossible for me to follow the conversation. But being online, I was able to cut and paste their text into Google translator. It was not perfect but it was good enough to provide a reasonable translation of their discussion.

Once you include easy access to the Web, you obviously do become augmented when online in SL.

Posted by on 07/25 at 07:59 AM
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Posted by ugmokdnt on 08/03 at 05:03 PM