What Second Life is about

My reflections on what SL is about

1. It's virtual utopia - one can realise what's not doable in RL. This takes several forms. You can indulge: build your own seaside condo, be a pop star, grow a pair of wings...and play out your fantasy. You can find alternative healing: Karuna (an Indo-Aryan word, meaning "the desire to remove harm and suffering, and to bring about the well-being and happiness of others") is a new space in SL focusing on HIV/AIDS, and allows patients to share how they deal with the disease in a variety of formats including poetry, photos, music, and video. You can defeat the physicality of RL: recently in Japan, a patient with severe paralysis used his brain waves to control a character in SL; and walked around in his avatar chatted with virtual persons. Doctors believe this will help those patients"who are often too depressed to undergo rehabilitation"

2. It's democratic - and socialistic. You can do whatever you want, everyone is their own man; and at same time you are as equal the next person and have as many opportunities. There's no legacy social hierarchy. Recently an artist, Jeffrey Lipsky, opened an art gallery in SL displaying his work, and as a result earned the attention which got him into several RL art shows in the US - sth that he otherwise wouldnt have access to as a young budding artists under the hard-to-crack art system

3. The emotions are real - beneath the avatar cover, the mind is deeply engaged beyond the pixels. The obvious emotions to exploit are sexual ones - as seen in proliferation of porn sites in the early days of SL. But emotions are not just "soft" stuff; they quickly translates into a commercial ecosystem in SL that is very "real". This takes the form of "needs" that owners of avatars have, springing from their RL emotions. They want a bigger house, better clothes, prettier hairdo - in SL. People create goods that others need in SL. And buyers pay for goods when the "utility" of owning them exceeds the cost to them - in RL. People pay for items in Linden dollars - which has a fluctuating exchange rate, just like any RL currencies