I read an interesting article about how the power users of Second Life are holding back the development of Second Life as they pressure Linden Labs to do the things that they would like rather than allow them do things the ordinary user would like. There are certainly no end of things of things that would make the Second Life experience better for average users. Security could be better. There could be a lot less lag. There could be better management tools and better development tools. There could be a whole host of better better applications. And yet, Linden Labs keeps tinkering with a small set of specialized issues such as mega prims that most people do not give a hoot about.
It raises the question of whether applications should follow technology or if if technology should be developed to support applications. While this is an interesting question and worthy of discussion, I believe that it misses the point. The point is why is Second Life in the shape that it is in after more than five years of serious global exposure. And the answer is very simple - a lack of vision.
Linden Labs appears to have absolutely no vision of where they would like this wonderful technology to go. They have some vague claim about a world created entirely by its users. This is no more a vision than getting a job to put food on the table would be a vision for one's career. I am a big fan of the mass collaboration movement and applaud LL for its support of the concept. But mass collaboration does not work automatically. It takes a lot more than just a simple notion. It requires a vision of where all the efforts of the mass collaborators should be directed. Otherwise you just get a lot of people milling around and nothing getting done.
The power users apparently have little vision either. If they did, their collection of efforts would amount to something. Instead, they view the next technical achievement - such as mega prims, or allowing you have more than 25 groups, or allowing you to hide your groups - as worth goals. But, I would ask - why do you need to have more than 25 groups or why do you need to hide your groups? Since LL has no vision of where it is going, it cannot say whether these are worthwhile changes or not.
This is a symbiotic self destructive relationship between LL and its power users. LL doesn't know what it is doing and the power users give it something to do. This allows them to ignore what they really should be doing which is developing a long term product strategy and a vision for the technology. The power users, on the other hand, are unhappy with the progress that their efforts in Second Life have made and think that if they have mega prims, they will be happy. But they won't. Mega prims are not the problem. They are just a diversion. A lack of vision is the problem.
I think the clock is ticking for Linden Labs. This is a wonderful technology and somebody is going to figure out how to take it to the marketplace. Sadly, as the clock ticks, the likelihood that this somebody is Linden Labs decreases.
Showing posts with label imagination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label imagination. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Trying on clothes, Virtually
One of the problems with niche marketing of clothing is knowing what measurements to produce clothes for. The standard sizes that we currently have represent averages that fit some people better than others. If you wanted your clothes to fit perfectly, you would have to have them custom made which would be very expensive. Or would it.
Imagine that you have an avatar that actually corresponds to your measurements. This may not be ideal for a fantasy life but it is ideal for clothes shopping in a virtual world. Let's push this just a bit and say that you have multiple avatar that reflect your usual weight gains and losses throughout the year.
So you decide to go clothes shopping in a virtual world. First, you step on the scale to get your current weight. And then you select the avatar developed for that weight. As you look at items in the store, you select ones that you like and have them put on your avatar. This provides several benefits over our current ways of shopping.
First, you cans see how this particular items looks on you. Not every item will look as good on each body type. Second, you can try the item in different colors and fabrics to see which one works best for you. Third, you can look at yourself from all angles without having to crane your neck as you would in a store with those full length mirrors. Fourth, you can see how this new items goes with things you already have. Say it is a new jacket and you wonder if it will go with some slacks you already have. Well, just put the virtual copy of those slacks on your avatar and you can easily see. Fifth, you can get the opinion of friends. Have a friend teleport to the store and have a look. Maybe you thought that lime green jacket went pretty well with the slate blue pants but your friend might have a different opinion. Sixth, you could consult an expert (software) fashion adviser who could tell you if certain colors, textures, and styles work together and what they are appropriate for.
Finally, when you are done, the specifications for the items of clothing can be sent directly to the clothing manufacturer, fed into the tailoring machine, and your items will be sent to you with a few days. Stretching the imagination, one can see a day when these tailoring machines may be located locally, so you can just go pick up your clothes in a couple hours like you might pick up your dry cleaning.
Of course, the specifications would then be added to your inventory and the next time you go shopping, or it you were trying to figure out what to wear to a particular event, all of these items would be available to try on.
Some of the elements of this scenario can be accomplished today. Some require a little imagination and some advances in technology. However, we can't consider the possible uses of a new technology in a world frozen in the present. We have to consider it in a world that has been changed by the technology.
Imagine that you have an avatar that actually corresponds to your measurements. This may not be ideal for a fantasy life but it is ideal for clothes shopping in a virtual world. Let's push this just a bit and say that you have multiple avatar that reflect your usual weight gains and losses throughout the year.
So you decide to go clothes shopping in a virtual world. First, you step on the scale to get your current weight. And then you select the avatar developed for that weight. As you look at items in the store, you select ones that you like and have them put on your avatar. This provides several benefits over our current ways of shopping.
First, you cans see how this particular items looks on you. Not every item will look as good on each body type. Second, you can try the item in different colors and fabrics to see which one works best for you. Third, you can look at yourself from all angles without having to crane your neck as you would in a store with those full length mirrors. Fourth, you can see how this new items goes with things you already have. Say it is a new jacket and you wonder if it will go with some slacks you already have. Well, just put the virtual copy of those slacks on your avatar and you can easily see. Fifth, you can get the opinion of friends. Have a friend teleport to the store and have a look. Maybe you thought that lime green jacket went pretty well with the slate blue pants but your friend might have a different opinion. Sixth, you could consult an expert (software) fashion adviser who could tell you if certain colors, textures, and styles work together and what they are appropriate for.
Finally, when you are done, the specifications for the items of clothing can be sent directly to the clothing manufacturer, fed into the tailoring machine, and your items will be sent to you with a few days. Stretching the imagination, one can see a day when these tailoring machines may be located locally, so you can just go pick up your clothes in a couple hours like you might pick up your dry cleaning.
Of course, the specifications would then be added to your inventory and the next time you go shopping, or it you were trying to figure out what to wear to a particular event, all of these items would be available to try on.
Some of the elements of this scenario can be accomplished today. Some require a little imagination and some advances in technology. However, we can't consider the possible uses of a new technology in a world frozen in the present. We have to consider it in a world that has been changed by the technology.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
First, Performance Issues
Second Life is a dynamic environment. If you have the right permissions, you can change the environment on the fly. You can create new objects, change the location and shape of objects. Or apply new textures to objects to give them a new look. In Second Life parlance this is referred to as 'building'. It is the act of creating the 3D environment. You can also change the behavior of objects. If a river is flowing east to west, you can change it to flow west to east. If a door opens on the right, you can change it to open on the left. In Second Life parlance this is referred to as 'scripting'. Both building and scripting make make the Second Life environment extremely dynamic which is why I said earlier that you can think of it as an extension of the imagination. However, there is a cost to all this dynamism. And that cost is performance.
When a simulator is slow to produce the 3D environment or when objects in the 3D environment do not perform their actions quickly enough it is referred to, again in Second Life parlance, as 'lag'. Here are some examples of lag. You might show up at a location and not see the location for a few minutes. You might appear in a crowd of people and not see the people for a few minutes. You might be walking across a room and your avatar looks like it is walking through molasses. You may raise your hand to ask a question and yet your hand does not go up. Or you may type a question into chat but not see the question until several lines later.
Lag is caused by a number of factors including the number of prims to be rezzed, the number of scripts running, and, yes, the number of avatars on the sim. This places a limit on the number of avatars that can be at one location. That number varies depending on how much lag you are willing to accept. However, a ball park figure for a maximum number of avatars in one location is 30. This creates problems if you want to have a meeting or a class or a conference with more than 30 people in attendance. When I teach my class in Second Life, I tell students not to follow me immediately to each location as having that many avatars show up at one location may crash the sim.
The solution here is to trade dynamism for performance. Unless you are having a meeting in which you are demonstrating or teaching building or scripting, you don't need that level of dynamism. Once the Second Life environment is created, it should be compiled down to a static environment and optimized for performance. Not only is it costly to have a sim for each 30 people, it is extremely inconvenience. Further, individual applications, such as meetings, can be optimized for different kinds of performance. For example, meetings should be optimized for gestures and chat, possibly also for displaying images such as PowerPoint slides or other media. A different application, say an amusement park, may be optimized for avatar movement and script performance.
The dynamic quality of the Second Life environment is wonderful for stimulating the imagination. And with imagination you can do almost anything. Unfortunately, with such a dynamic environment you cannot do anything particularly well.
When a simulator is slow to produce the 3D environment or when objects in the 3D environment do not perform their actions quickly enough it is referred to, again in Second Life parlance, as 'lag'. Here are some examples of lag. You might show up at a location and not see the location for a few minutes. You might appear in a crowd of people and not see the people for a few minutes. You might be walking across a room and your avatar looks like it is walking through molasses. You may raise your hand to ask a question and yet your hand does not go up. Or you may type a question into chat but not see the question until several lines later.
Lag is caused by a number of factors including the number of prims to be rezzed, the number of scripts running, and, yes, the number of avatars on the sim. This places a limit on the number of avatars that can be at one location. That number varies depending on how much lag you are willing to accept. However, a ball park figure for a maximum number of avatars in one location is 30. This creates problems if you want to have a meeting or a class or a conference with more than 30 people in attendance. When I teach my class in Second Life, I tell students not to follow me immediately to each location as having that many avatars show up at one location may crash the sim.
The solution here is to trade dynamism for performance. Unless you are having a meeting in which you are demonstrating or teaching building or scripting, you don't need that level of dynamism. Once the Second Life environment is created, it should be compiled down to a static environment and optimized for performance. Not only is it costly to have a sim for each 30 people, it is extremely inconvenience. Further, individual applications, such as meetings, can be optimized for different kinds of performance. For example, meetings should be optimized for gestures and chat, possibly also for displaying images such as PowerPoint slides or other media. A different application, say an amusement park, may be optimized for avatar movement and script performance.
The dynamic quality of the Second Life environment is wonderful for stimulating the imagination. And with imagination you can do almost anything. Unfortunately, with such a dynamic environment you cannot do anything particularly well.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Advantages of Meeting in Second Life
Before elaborating on the functional requirements of meeting support software in Second Life, it is useful to articulate the advantages of meeting in Second Life. With the advantages in mind, it is easier to define the capabilities necessary to support those advantages.
First, and foremost, the advantage of meeting is Second Life is logistical. Getting people to show up for a meeting in a conference room half a hallway away from their office can be a challenge. If people work on different floors, in different buildings, in different cities or different parts of the globe, this challenge becomes even greater. So, just the fact that you don't have to get up from your desk, whether at home or at your office, is an enormous benefit of meeting in Second Life.
The second advantage, convenience, is related to the first but distinct. When attending a meeting in Second Life you don't have to worry about transportation, parking, lodging or any of the usual hassles associated with traveling to a meeting. Further, you don't even have to get out of your pajamas. You don't have to shave or fix your hair. You don't even have to bathe. You can dress your avatar as you see fit and what you actually look like is irrelevant.
Third is the ability to multi-task. Normally, it would be considered to be rude to bring work into a meeting and then work on it while the meeting was going on. And yet, we all know how deadly boring meetings can be. However, while your avatar is respectfully sitting there appearing to pay attention, you can be working on something more interesting keeping an ear tuned to whatever might come up in the meeting. In addition, you can have side conversations with other people in IM, another feature that would be awkward in a typical meeting. Your confederate can even alert you if the topic of discussion turns to something you care about.
And, fourth, is the ability to record the meeting. Nobody likes to take minutes so meetings are often convened and dismissed with nary a note taken. Open chat and IM are easy to log. However, you could also record the meeting as a Quicktime movie for anyone who missed it or for later reference. If somebody does actually take minutes they can be used later to search for comments on a specific topic.
At the same time, there are three drawbacks of having meetings in Second Life. First, is the learning curve. Second is lag and the limitation on the number of avatars in a sim. And third is observation that in Second Life you don't get to see the faces of the people in the meeting. However, none of these drawbacks are hard to fix. And the benefits so far outweigh them that even if they couldn't be fixed they wouldn't be major detriments.
Next time I will address these drawbacks and begin talking about the functionality required to make Second Life meetings successful.
First, and foremost, the advantage of meeting is Second Life is logistical. Getting people to show up for a meeting in a conference room half a hallway away from their office can be a challenge. If people work on different floors, in different buildings, in different cities or different parts of the globe, this challenge becomes even greater. So, just the fact that you don't have to get up from your desk, whether at home or at your office, is an enormous benefit of meeting in Second Life.
The second advantage, convenience, is related to the first but distinct. When attending a meeting in Second Life you don't have to worry about transportation, parking, lodging or any of the usual hassles associated with traveling to a meeting. Further, you don't even have to get out of your pajamas. You don't have to shave or fix your hair. You don't even have to bathe. You can dress your avatar as you see fit and what you actually look like is irrelevant.
Third is the ability to multi-task. Normally, it would be considered to be rude to bring work into a meeting and then work on it while the meeting was going on. And yet, we all know how deadly boring meetings can be. However, while your avatar is respectfully sitting there appearing to pay attention, you can be working on something more interesting keeping an ear tuned to whatever might come up in the meeting. In addition, you can have side conversations with other people in IM, another feature that would be awkward in a typical meeting. Your confederate can even alert you if the topic of discussion turns to something you care about.
And, fourth, is the ability to record the meeting. Nobody likes to take minutes so meetings are often convened and dismissed with nary a note taken. Open chat and IM are easy to log. However, you could also record the meeting as a Quicktime movie for anyone who missed it or for later reference. If somebody does actually take minutes they can be used later to search for comments on a specific topic.
At the same time, there are three drawbacks of having meetings in Second Life. First, is the learning curve. Second is lag and the limitation on the number of avatars in a sim. And third is observation that in Second Life you don't get to see the faces of the people in the meeting. However, none of these drawbacks are hard to fix. And the benefits so far outweigh them that even if they couldn't be fixed they wouldn't be major detriments.
Next time I will address these drawbacks and begin talking about the functionality required to make Second Life meetings successful.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Second Life for Personal Growth
In this post I want to explore three ways in which Second Life can contribute to your personal growth. These include enriching experiences, role switching, and overcoming social anxieties. This is not to say that these are the only three ways in which Second Life can contribute to your personal growth. It is merely to say that these are the ways that come to mind at the moment.
There are some fairly standard ways in which we enrich ourselves in real life. Most people would say that travel is enriching. Many would say that visiting art galleries and museums is enriching. Some would say that taking classes or doing volunteer work helping people is enriching. All of these things are possible in Second Life and you don't even have to leave your desk to do them. I visited an island recently called Suffugium. It is a cyberpunk rendering of a future world. I have actually been there many times and I am always astonished at the effort that was put into the place to provide an interesting and artistic experience for the visitors. You can walk around this wonderful location and experience the art and the political message. It simulates your thought and your creativity. And, there are hundreds of other similar locations, each one unique, which provide enriching and thought provoking messages and experiences.
The second way in which Second Life can provide you with personal growth is through role switching. We are who we are and we tend to see life from our very own perspective. But, how does the world appear differently to people of the other gender? Do younger or older people see things differently? Are life experiences different for people of a different social class or ethnicity? Do people of a different sexual orientation get treated differently? How can you know the answers to these questions without changing who you are and going out into the world as somebody else? The answer, of course, is that in Second Life you can do just that. And if you do, you will be astonished at how different life presents itself to you. Seeing the world through the eyes of others is good for you. It broadens your perspectives, and helps you become more compassionate, understanding and tolerant. All good stuff.
Finally, many people suffer from social anxieties such as shyness, fear of crowds, or fear of speaking in front people. It is possible to limit the impact of these anxieties through systematic desensitization. For example, you may speak in front of one person, then two, then three and so on. However, this systematic desensitization in real life can still be difficult. Just setting up the scenarios can present logistical problems. And you may still be afraid of blushing or shaking. In a virtual world you can take baby steps to overcoming these anxieties. People do not actually see you, they only see your avatar. So you get a bit of protection. But, even more importantly, people in a virtual world are much more supportive and much less judgmental than they are in the real world. So the barriers are lower.
These are just a few of the ways in which Second Life can help enrich and improve you. Unfortunately, this capability exists today largely as a possibility. And one of the most frustrating things about Second Life is that all these possibilities exist simultaneously with none of them being fully exploited.
There are some fairly standard ways in which we enrich ourselves in real life. Most people would say that travel is enriching. Many would say that visiting art galleries and museums is enriching. Some would say that taking classes or doing volunteer work helping people is enriching. All of these things are possible in Second Life and you don't even have to leave your desk to do them. I visited an island recently called Suffugium. It is a cyberpunk rendering of a future world. I have actually been there many times and I am always astonished at the effort that was put into the place to provide an interesting and artistic experience for the visitors. You can walk around this wonderful location and experience the art and the political message. It simulates your thought and your creativity. And, there are hundreds of other similar locations, each one unique, which provide enriching and thought provoking messages and experiences.
The second way in which Second Life can provide you with personal growth is through role switching. We are who we are and we tend to see life from our very own perspective. But, how does the world appear differently to people of the other gender? Do younger or older people see things differently? Are life experiences different for people of a different social class or ethnicity? Do people of a different sexual orientation get treated differently? How can you know the answers to these questions without changing who you are and going out into the world as somebody else? The answer, of course, is that in Second Life you can do just that. And if you do, you will be astonished at how different life presents itself to you. Seeing the world through the eyes of others is good for you. It broadens your perspectives, and helps you become more compassionate, understanding and tolerant. All good stuff.
Finally, many people suffer from social anxieties such as shyness, fear of crowds, or fear of speaking in front people. It is possible to limit the impact of these anxieties through systematic desensitization. For example, you may speak in front of one person, then two, then three and so on. However, this systematic desensitization in real life can still be difficult. Just setting up the scenarios can present logistical problems. And you may still be afraid of blushing or shaking. In a virtual world you can take baby steps to overcoming these anxieties. People do not actually see you, they only see your avatar. So you get a bit of protection. But, even more importantly, people in a virtual world are much more supportive and much less judgmental than they are in the real world. So the barriers are lower.
These are just a few of the ways in which Second Life can help enrich and improve you. Unfortunately, this capability exists today largely as a possibility. And one of the most frustrating things about Second Life is that all these possibilities exist simultaneously with none of them being fully exploited.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Three Reasons Why Imagination is Important
In this post, I am going to offer three reasons why imagination is important: coherency, anticipation, and improvement. First, coherency. The world is a very messy place. There is randomness, uncertainty, inconsistency and endless things that we just do not understand. If we had to interact directly with the real world we would have a very difficult time. However, we reconstruct a much more coherent view of the real world in our imaginations and interact with that model instead. If it weren't for our imaginations, we would not be able to make sense out of the world.
Second, not only to we interact with the real world through a model that exists in our imaginations, we use that model to predict what might happen in the future. So, imagination is important for planing, forecasting, even just anticipating. Not only do we interact with the world through a model that exists in our imaginations, we interact with the future as well. Even simple things like planning errands occurs in the model of the world in our imaginations. But, it doesn't stop there. The most profound moral decisions we make, are made through the models of the world that we maintain in our imaginations. As we debate a moral issues we anticipate what the world would be like if we follow position A as a opposed to position B. And that brings us to the third reason why the imagination is important.
Without imagination it would not be possible to bring about a better world. Better worlds are only possible when someone can imagine a world that does not have things that we take for given in the real world of today. Not only does the imagination help us to envision a better world, it allows us to envision multiple better worlds and choose between them. So, life would never get any better without the benefit of our ability to imagine.
Our imaginations are critical in our ability to understand the world, anticipate and plan, and attempt to make the world a better place. Since the imagination is so important, a technology that provides a technological extension of the imagination must be critically important was well. So, in the next few posts, we will come off of our lofty perch where we examine the role of the imagination in constructing reality and come down to some very concrete business applications of a technology that can extend the imagination.
Second, not only to we interact with the real world through a model that exists in our imaginations, we use that model to predict what might happen in the future. So, imagination is important for planing, forecasting, even just anticipating. Not only do we interact with the world through a model that exists in our imaginations, we interact with the future as well. Even simple things like planning errands occurs in the model of the world in our imaginations. But, it doesn't stop there. The most profound moral decisions we make, are made through the models of the world that we maintain in our imaginations. As we debate a moral issues we anticipate what the world would be like if we follow position A as a opposed to position B. And that brings us to the third reason why the imagination is important.
Without imagination it would not be possible to bring about a better world. Better worlds are only possible when someone can imagine a world that does not have things that we take for given in the real world of today. Not only does the imagination help us to envision a better world, it allows us to envision multiple better worlds and choose between them. So, life would never get any better without the benefit of our ability to imagine.
Our imaginations are critical in our ability to understand the world, anticipate and plan, and attempt to make the world a better place. Since the imagination is so important, a technology that provides a technological extension of the imagination must be critically important was well. So, in the next few posts, we will come off of our lofty perch where we examine the role of the imagination in constructing reality and come down to some very concrete business applications of a technology that can extend the imagination.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
What is the Imagination
John Locke once claimed that there is nothing in the mind that was not first derived from experience. The mind, according to Locke, is a blank slate upon which experience is written. Like most philosophical observations, this may be true or untrue depending upon how you interpret it. I can picture a unicorn in my mind even though I have never actually experienced one. So, it seems this claim might not be true. On the other hand, one might argue that the elements from which I construct a unicorn in my mind are derived from experience. I have seen horses and I have seen horns. So, the unicorn is merely a reassembly of things I have experienced. And in that case, the claim might be true.
The problem is that the unicorn is a product of my imagination and we do not fully understand, nor appreciate the role or importance of the imagination. But, before we go any further, I should probably define what I mean by 'imagination'. Imagination is the capability to form images in your mind that are not directly received from experience. It is, as far as I know, a uniquely human capability. We cannot know this for sure because we cannot experience the consciousness of other species. But, it seems a pretty safe bet for reasons we will discuss later.
One might argue that the unicorn, as a product of the imagination, is 'not real'; thus relegating the products of the imagination to some inferior status. This is comforting because it makes products of the imagination seem less important some how and, in doing so, makes the problem of understanding the imagination a little less important. However, I would offer the following challenge. Picture anything in your mind - a friend, a pet, your car, the house across the street, anything. Now is that picture in your mind 100% faithful to the thing you are picturing? If it is not, then it is, to some degree, a product of the imagination.
Pushing this idea a little further, anything we experience in our minds is a product of our imagination. Since our concepts of reality are largely in our minds, this means that reality is a product of our imaginations. Well, clearly we are going to get into big trouble if we simply try to dismiss the imagination as unimportant. So, let us accept, for the sake of argument, that the imagination is important and that it plays a crucial role, of some kind, in human cognition. Next time we will look at some of the reasons why the imagination is important and why knowledge and rationality would not be possible without it.
The problem is that the unicorn is a product of my imagination and we do not fully understand, nor appreciate the role or importance of the imagination. But, before we go any further, I should probably define what I mean by 'imagination'. Imagination is the capability to form images in your mind that are not directly received from experience. It is, as far as I know, a uniquely human capability. We cannot know this for sure because we cannot experience the consciousness of other species. But, it seems a pretty safe bet for reasons we will discuss later.
One might argue that the unicorn, as a product of the imagination, is 'not real'; thus relegating the products of the imagination to some inferior status. This is comforting because it makes products of the imagination seem less important some how and, in doing so, makes the problem of understanding the imagination a little less important. However, I would offer the following challenge. Picture anything in your mind - a friend, a pet, your car, the house across the street, anything. Now is that picture in your mind 100% faithful to the thing you are picturing? If it is not, then it is, to some degree, a product of the imagination.
Pushing this idea a little further, anything we experience in our minds is a product of our imagination. Since our concepts of reality are largely in our minds, this means that reality is a product of our imaginations. Well, clearly we are going to get into big trouble if we simply try to dismiss the imagination as unimportant. So, let us accept, for the sake of argument, that the imagination is important and that it plays a crucial role, of some kind, in human cognition. Next time we will look at some of the reasons why the imagination is important and why knowledge and rationality would not be possible without it.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Second Life as the Technological Extension of the Imagination
Philosophers of technology have often pointed out that most technologies can be understood, to some degree, as extensions of the person. Obvious examples include transportation as an extension of the feet or legs, weapons as an extension of the fists or arms, radio and television as an extension of the ears and eyes.
Less obvious examples would include medical technology as an extension of the immune system or computer technology as an extension of the mind. Just how well each of these claims actually fits can be debated. However, one can certainly see that this perspective does give us a quick handle on understanding a technology. So, the question is, with a new technology, what human capability does it extend.
Some technologies actually cover a wide range of human capabilities. The computer, for example, can be seen in applications that extend almost every human capacity that there is. However, understanding the computer as an extension of the mind is the most important and puts all of the others into perspective.
In the case of Second Life, we can ask - what human capacity does it extend? Like the computer, Second Life extends a wide variety of human capacities. However, like the computer, there is one central capacity - the human capacity for imagination. Second Life is a technological extension of the imagination. While there are many others things that Second Life can do this is the biggie. This is the home run out of the park.
So, as I turn to more positive commentary, I am going to focus on Second Life as an extension of the imagination. I will address what is imagination, why is it important, how does Second Life extend the imagination, and what does this mean for potential future uses for this technology.
Less obvious examples would include medical technology as an extension of the immune system or computer technology as an extension of the mind. Just how well each of these claims actually fits can be debated. However, one can certainly see that this perspective does give us a quick handle on understanding a technology. So, the question is, with a new technology, what human capability does it extend.
Some technologies actually cover a wide range of human capabilities. The computer, for example, can be seen in applications that extend almost every human capacity that there is. However, understanding the computer as an extension of the mind is the most important and puts all of the others into perspective.
In the case of Second Life, we can ask - what human capacity does it extend? Like the computer, Second Life extends a wide variety of human capacities. However, like the computer, there is one central capacity - the human capacity for imagination. Second Life is a technological extension of the imagination. While there are many others things that Second Life can do this is the biggie. This is the home run out of the park.
So, as I turn to more positive commentary, I am going to focus on Second Life as an extension of the imagination. I will address what is imagination, why is it important, how does Second Life extend the imagination, and what does this mean for potential future uses for this technology.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Paradox of Creativity
Many people have drawn parallels between Linden Labs, the creators of Second Life and Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, the creators of the graphical user interface. For those of you who have not heard this story, I will summarize it. The now very familiar mouse input device and the omnipresent graphical user interface that we have become accustomed to on our computers was originally invented, as the story goes, at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Unfortunately, after inventing this wonderful technology, Xerox PARC was unable to exploit it. That is they failed to employ the technology in useful applications. It wasn't until the Macintosh computer employed the technology that the public became aware of it. Why is it that Xerox PARC was creative enough to develop this landmark technology and yet failed to be creative enough to see applications for it? I am calling this the paradox of creativity simply for lack of a better term. It seems to occur when one has abundant creativity in one area but creative blind spots in other areas that are necessary to fully exploit the first creative leap.
Linden Labs seems to be suffering from the same paradox of creativity. The creation of Second Life required an enormous leap in creativity. Granted many of the pieces were around in video games and other virtual worlds. But, the way these piece came together in Second is truly a leap of creativity of astonishing proportions. And yet, as with the people at PARC they seem unable to envision applications for it.
I think I have had my fill of bashing Linden Labs. Perhaps I have gotten it all out of my system now. So, as I turn this in a more positive direction, I am going to suggest four quite distinct but not necessarily mutually exclusive application areas for Second Life. I call these 1) Creative Second Life, 2) Social Second Life, 3) Business Second Life, and 4) Educational Second Life. Over the next few posts, I will sketch out these very different application area and, hopefully, it will become obvious why Second Life cannot work as long as Linden Labs continues to pursue these possibilities simultaneously.
Linden Labs seems to be suffering from the same paradox of creativity. The creation of Second Life required an enormous leap in creativity. Granted many of the pieces were around in video games and other virtual worlds. But, the way these piece came together in Second is truly a leap of creativity of astonishing proportions. And yet, as with the people at PARC they seem unable to envision applications for it.
I think I have had my fill of bashing Linden Labs. Perhaps I have gotten it all out of my system now. So, as I turn this in a more positive direction, I am going to suggest four quite distinct but not necessarily mutually exclusive application areas for Second Life. I call these 1) Creative Second Life, 2) Social Second Life, 3) Business Second Life, and 4) Educational Second Life. Over the next few posts, I will sketch out these very different application area and, hopefully, it will become obvious why Second Life cannot work as long as Linden Labs continues to pursue these possibilities simultaneously.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Creating Your Second Life - Part 2
In the last post, I discussed the capabilities that Second Life provides for creating objects in the 3D world through a processes called building. This is by far the most impressive feature of Second Life. You can create interesting things for others to see and you can see the interesting things that they have created. It is a public and synergistic sharing of creative imagination; sort of like a global 3D art show.
However, not far behind that is the ability to create your own persona in Second Life. Instead of being all that you can be, in Second Life you can be MORE than you can be. You can be better looking and more interesting. You can dress better and be more adept at business and technology that you ever could be in real life.
If you are short and fat in real life, then you can be tall and slim in Second Life. If you are unpopular and socially inept in real life, then you can have a long friends list and belong to lots of groups in Second Life. If nobody takes you seriously in real life, you can teach a class or start a philosophy discussion group in Second Life. If you can't hang on to a job in real life, you can start your own business in Second Life.
This ability to create you own persona has many significant implications. It builds confidence. It helps you explore the possibilities in your own personality. It can help you over come a variety of social anxieties. It can allow you to see the world from the perspective who are not like you in real life. Whereas the building capability in Second Life allows you to imagine and then create a new world, the various means of altering your persona in Second Life allow you to imagine and then create a new self. Once you have created a new world in Second Life, you can live in it. Once you have created a new self in Second Life you can experience that new world through that new self. It is no wonder that people get so addicted.
So, to sum up what Linden Labs got right with Second Life, it is the ability it provides for its users to create possible worlds and then experience those possible worlds. This is stimulating to the imagination and satisfying to the emotions. The question is - how can this amazing capability be put to best use? And that is where Linden Labs starts dropping the ball. In the next post we will begin to look at what Linden Labs did not get right.
However, not far behind that is the ability to create your own persona in Second Life. Instead of being all that you can be, in Second Life you can be MORE than you can be. You can be better looking and more interesting. You can dress better and be more adept at business and technology that you ever could be in real life.
If you are short and fat in real life, then you can be tall and slim in Second Life. If you are unpopular and socially inept in real life, then you can have a long friends list and belong to lots of groups in Second Life. If nobody takes you seriously in real life, you can teach a class or start a philosophy discussion group in Second Life. If you can't hang on to a job in real life, you can start your own business in Second Life.
This ability to create you own persona has many significant implications. It builds confidence. It helps you explore the possibilities in your own personality. It can help you over come a variety of social anxieties. It can allow you to see the world from the perspective who are not like you in real life. Whereas the building capability in Second Life allows you to imagine and then create a new world, the various means of altering your persona in Second Life allow you to imagine and then create a new self. Once you have created a new world in Second Life, you can live in it. Once you have created a new self in Second Life you can experience that new world through that new self. It is no wonder that people get so addicted.
So, to sum up what Linden Labs got right with Second Life, it is the ability it provides for its users to create possible worlds and then experience those possible worlds. This is stimulating to the imagination and satisfying to the emotions. The question is - how can this amazing capability be put to best use? And that is where Linden Labs starts dropping the ball. In the next post we will begin to look at what Linden Labs did not get right.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Creating Your Second Life - Part I
The single most impressive feature of Second Life is the capabilities that it provides the user to create their own content within the virtual world. Philosophers of technology claim that technology can always be viewed, in some way, as an extension of the person. In the case of Second Life technology, it can be viewed as a technological extension of the imagination. This is no small claim and the thing that Linden Labs did get right was the power that they put in the hands of their users to create their own worlds in Second Life.
This power to create is referred to as 'building' in Second Life. The user begins by creating a primitive object, called a 'prim' and then by modifying the shape, location of the prim and the images displayed on that prim, all of the content that you see in Second Life is created. There are some minor exceptions to this rather sweeping statement. For example, land is modified through a different editor in a process known as terraforming. And avatar looks are modified in an 'Appearance Editor' which will be discussed in the next post. But, for the most part, the vast majority of what you see in Second Life was created through building.
Building in Second Life is far from perfect. Its major drawback is that it is difficult to learn. All of the in-world tutorials are basically the same. The few available books are basically color glossy repeats of the in-world tutorials. And the in-world classes focus on how to achieve a specific result rather than on understanding building so that you can figure out how to achieve that result on your own. However, my experience with out-of-world graphics editors isn't a great deal better. So, I will give them a pass on that. If you want to learn how to build; you can. It may not be as easy as it could or should be. But any person of moderate intelligence and persistence can learn. And once you learn, what you can do is astonishing. So let's focus on that instead.
People with active imaginations are always picturing things in their minds. In fact, the definition of imagination is to be able to picture something in your mind that was not directly derived from experience. You can picture a unicorn in your mind, for example, even though you have never actually seen a unicorn. The beauty of building in Second Life is that if you can imagine it, you can probably build it. So instead of relying on those fuzzy pictures in your head, you can actually see what your ideas look like when represented in a virtual world. The net result of this is that your imagination and creativity come alive. In the classic movie - The Wizard of Oz - the film switches from black and white to technicolor when Dorothy leaves Kansas and enters the Land of Oz. The analogy is apt. Entering Second Life is like entering the magical World of Oz. It is a realm of the imagination, a place where all things are possible. If you can see it in your head, you can see it on the screen. And, if this were all that building in Second Life allowed you to do, it would be impressive enough. But it is not all.
When you create something in Second Life it is out there for everyone to see. So instead of those pictures being in your head, they are out there in a shared virtual world. You can display the products of your imagination and see the products of other people's imaginations. It reminds me of an old Bob Dylan song called Talkin' World War III Blues in which he says "I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours." This is the essence of Second Life - "I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours." The ability of users to get the content of their imaginations into the virtual world for others to see and the ability to see the content of the imaginations of others is truly the strength and most impressive accomplishment of Second Life. And the importance of this capability cannot be overstated.
That bears repeating. The importance of this capability cannot be overstated. And if I say anymore, I will only diminish it. So, I will end with that remark.
This power to create is referred to as 'building' in Second Life. The user begins by creating a primitive object, called a 'prim' and then by modifying the shape, location of the prim and the images displayed on that prim, all of the content that you see in Second Life is created. There are some minor exceptions to this rather sweeping statement. For example, land is modified through a different editor in a process known as terraforming. And avatar looks are modified in an 'Appearance Editor' which will be discussed in the next post. But, for the most part, the vast majority of what you see in Second Life was created through building.
Building in Second Life is far from perfect. Its major drawback is that it is difficult to learn. All of the in-world tutorials are basically the same. The few available books are basically color glossy repeats of the in-world tutorials. And the in-world classes focus on how to achieve a specific result rather than on understanding building so that you can figure out how to achieve that result on your own. However, my experience with out-of-world graphics editors isn't a great deal better. So, I will give them a pass on that. If you want to learn how to build; you can. It may not be as easy as it could or should be. But any person of moderate intelligence and persistence can learn. And once you learn, what you can do is astonishing. So let's focus on that instead.
People with active imaginations are always picturing things in their minds. In fact, the definition of imagination is to be able to picture something in your mind that was not directly derived from experience. You can picture a unicorn in your mind, for example, even though you have never actually seen a unicorn. The beauty of building in Second Life is that if you can imagine it, you can probably build it. So instead of relying on those fuzzy pictures in your head, you can actually see what your ideas look like when represented in a virtual world. The net result of this is that your imagination and creativity come alive. In the classic movie - The Wizard of Oz - the film switches from black and white to technicolor when Dorothy leaves Kansas and enters the Land of Oz. The analogy is apt. Entering Second Life is like entering the magical World of Oz. It is a realm of the imagination, a place where all things are possible. If you can see it in your head, you can see it on the screen. And, if this were all that building in Second Life allowed you to do, it would be impressive enough. But it is not all.
When you create something in Second Life it is out there for everyone to see. So instead of those pictures being in your head, they are out there in a shared virtual world. You can display the products of your imagination and see the products of other people's imaginations. It reminds me of an old Bob Dylan song called Talkin' World War III Blues in which he says "I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours." This is the essence of Second Life - "I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours." The ability of users to get the content of their imaginations into the virtual world for others to see and the ability to see the content of the imaginations of others is truly the strength and most impressive accomplishment of Second Life. And the importance of this capability cannot be overstated.
That bears repeating. The importance of this capability cannot be overstated. And if I say anymore, I will only diminish it. So, I will end with that remark.
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