How to live in a pervasively networked world. What happens when 1st life meets second life?
What is 1st/2nd life? They’re different, but in what way?
1st: material contingencies. Digital data owes its life to material stuff. So our 2nd life has a material basis, and we should be mindful of it.
This material basis is a debt (some sort of HR, material, expended energy debt too).
Online exists thanks to offline. An avatar consumes 1,752kWh per year. That is a bit less energy than a real person (2,436kWh) (cf. Nicolas Carr’s Blog, 05.12.06, see blog)
Also a debt to the sedentary body sitting in front of our computer screen. steph-note: yes, my upcoming post “On the Road to Being a Healthier Geek”…
There are critical externalities to our SL existence. 1st life doesn’t reboot when the system crashes.
How could we be reminded of these externalities in our 2nd Life? Bridge FL to SL, and get the best of both? Can we make SL worlds that take those material contingencies seriously? Where do we start? Playful reminders. Motion, time distance.
- Wii: motion.
- Animal Crossing: time.
- Teku Teku Angel: distance.
How do you account for your second life?
Update 11.02.2007: Check out Julian’s post about this topic.