More voices from Second Life and Life 2.0
My article on Life 2.0: augmentationists in Second Life and beyond has received many comments, some positive, some negative, and all very interesting. Besides this blog, the article has been commented on the IEET site, Gwyneth Llewelyn’s blog, the Second Life Insider, Sophrosyne Stenvaag’s blog, and Identity In The Digital Age. It has been a very interesting discussion with interesting people.
I consider voice as just one more cool technical gadget in the Second Life interface, available to those who want to use it. Not really the sort of issue that deserves a passionate debate. But of course, the debate is not about voice in Second Life - it is on freedom and social pressure, tolerance and cultural norms. Even hardcore immersionists concede that everyone should be free to live her or his (first, second...) life as (s)he wishes as long as (s)he does not harm others. But some of them think that those who use voice in Second Life, even those (like me) who would never think of criticizing those who choose not to use voice, _do_ harm them in some sense.
This is interesting. How can my own personal choices of technology options harm others? Having and using a cell phone does not damage those who do not have one or do not use it. Talking in Second Life should not harm those who, for any reason, cannot or do not wish to talk. And, once these options will be available, using technology to extend our lifespan or escaping the prison of the flesh by mind uploading will not harm those who cannot make the transition to Human 2.0 or, for whatever reason, prefer to stay Human 1.0.
I have and use a cell phone, talk in Second Life, and look forward to become Human 2.0. I will not give up any of these options because others do not like them. But I understand that it may make others uncomfortable.
However, the voice debate is over and Second Life - Life 2.0 are moving on. The really interesting thing at the interface between virtual worlds and posthumanity is that online worlds such as Second Life will soon become training grounds for artificial intelligences (BBC). See the Novamente website and Ben Goertzel’s blog: “What’s exciting about virtual parrots-that-talk — and the intelligent virtual agents space generally — is the way it poses an incremental path by which getting more and more customers for products is directly connected to making the AI underlying the products smarter and smarter (which in turn will attract more and more customers). This is exactly the kind of virtuous cycle one wants to see in an AI start-up company (in my never-very-humble and admittedly rather biased opinion!)”.
In the image above (George Dvorsky), Ben Goertzel appears with Philip Rosedale and Marvin Minsky at Transvision 2007. See his blog with a quote from Reason Online: “Finally, Rosedale mentioned the possibility of creating AI avatars that could learn from interacting with the avatars of humans in Second Life. “I find it very likely that any artificial intelligence we create will live first in a world like this,” said Rosedale. Rosedale’s last observation flowed nicely into the next talk by Novamente AI researcher Ben Goertzel. Goertzel wants to create baby AI’s that can learn and insert them into virtual worlds where human avatars can teach them...”.
Posted by G.P. on 09/14 at 05:47 AM