reality checklist

29 september, 1997 technology self and society ken gergen

robotics:
ariel behr
ted florea
justin hall
ethan holland
vi truong

REALITY CHECKLIST
In choosing where to interact, we are not limited to only two worlds: technological or non-technological. We have numerous choices of social spaces, each with its own reality potential, within each world.

Any context can allow identity formation to the point of addiction.

online interactings is for:
nerdy ugly overweight single smelly fringe geeks who can't relate to people
dungeons and dragons freaks who can't deal with reality
horny dweebs with deviant tastes who can't get a date

someone can forge world-dependent identity in an addictive manner anywhere, in any context ?

PLACES

offline we choose identity by choosing places

singles bar
trotter reopening
church
office christmas party
psychoanalyst's office
classroom
mountain top
public transportation
family reunion
halloween party
drug state
Swarthmore
television
mall

RELATIONSHIPS
god's relationship to humanity is narrow-bandwidth
on drugs
illness

RUPTURES
horny chat made real
job interviewer calls when you're with your friends.

-Meeting on Line, never in person
-Meeting on line, later at a party
-When is it multiple personality disorder?

when is it simply many selves?

"Of course we all change personae all the time, to suit the social occasion, although with on-line personae the act is more purposeful."
- Allucquere Rosanne Stone, page 73

when speaking about online spaces, some say
-"At a MUD in Australia"
-"At a chat bar in San Francisco"

"...the census, the introduction of street addresses, passports, telephone numbers...which is to say finetuning surveillance and control in the interests of producing a more "stable", manageable citizen."

- A R Stone, p.90

"Whereas prior to electronic communication, an agent maintained proximity through texts bearing the agent's seal...in the time of electronic speech proximity is maintained through technoology, and agency becomes invisable."

- A R Stone, p.96

Chat Room Versus Church

We Don't Know What Our Virtual Friends Look Like

relationships:
how much do we need to know?

ie,
What is the UFSS* anyway ?

*Universal Friendship Sensory Standard

a conversation with kurt vonnegut:

"Body odour's going to come back in style. What's that wonderful smell? Another human being!"

I proposed that the computer could be used to extend family, and truth, the importance of which he mentioned in his speech.

"Those people aren't real."

technologies, according to AR stone, can further the modern fragmentation of identity and personality,

but perhaps these media can drive creation of a unified, or whole self.

asia carrera

justin hall
are you waking up with unexplained burns or are you shifting roles?

a question of intention.

fellow swatties speak:

denise tenorio

jose villavicencio
or programmed modes of interaction

nintendo 64/marathon vision

arranging human interaction as windows

reconstructionist judaism:

"you can bend the rules, but the community is the most important thing"
Sherry Turkle posited that MUDders who replicated online their same patterns of behaviour that were damaging in real life were not heald to appropriate constructive reworking, the type that happens in a therapist-patient relationship.
there are cases of virtual conflict resolution, most famous perhaps is the virtual rape from LambdaMOO.

obnoxious behaviour:
if your virtual friends stop talking to you, does that matter?

stone sez, on page 120:
"Should any unpleasant or even incipiently boring events arise, they can simply log out."

places:
space bar | hate bar | mortal realms | LambdaMoo

justin's links by justin hall: contact