CRDM 701

Week 12 - Kelly

While reading Hayles? writing this week I continue to draw connections between her ideas and my experiences as I navigate my way through Second Life. Hayles points out that ?underlying code surfaces at those moments when the program makes decision we have not consciously initiated? (forthcoming, p. 2). As a newbie to the Second Life virtual environment it was almost kind of creepy when my avatar would begin to perform tasks that I didn?t really feel like I had any control over and wasn?t expecting. I had almost a voyeuristic experience with my avatar when I would begin typing on my keyboard (to communicate with another avatar) and then I would notice my avatar was air-typing - I didn?t know what it was doing at first. I felt like I was observing an interaction that I wasn?t wholly a part of especially when my avatar would make appropriate facial expressions and filler motions that I had in no way prompted.

Though Hayles later argues that higher level of complexity can emerge from different mechanisms including analog in response to Wolfram and Fredkin, I don?t think this disputes the novelty of Fredkin?s major thesis: ?That the universe is digital all the way down and, moreover can be understood as software running on an unfathomable universal digital computer? (Hayles, 2005, p. 23). If we conceive that the actual universe is digital ?all the way down? then does that imply that the virtual environments like Second Life aren?t really that ?virtual?? Maybe they are more like subsidiary or sister environments. Second Life could just type of ?new kinds of environments in which human and machine cognitions are deeply entwined? (Gannon & Hayles, forthcoming, p. 36). In my research paper I am looking at how the visual culture of Second Life extends outward and possibly influences actual lives ? especially in regards to how the visual communication of avatars reflects Second Life values and changes how we conceive of our none-screen bodies. Gannon & Hayles (forthcoming) take this idea further by illustrating an actual physical extension of the digital into our bodies:

It seems eventually programmers will develop ways of allowing aspects of Second Life (or another casually immersive world) to become part of our actual world where we might not have control, like Whalen?s ?cognisphere?. In Heidi?s presentation last week she mentioned an example where nano particles implanted in a physical body would work on their own to kill cancer cells ? and they would be able to differentiate between good and bad cells because they will have been programmed accordingly. Her paper was discussing how ?the mind? was the last frontier for nanotechnology and I feel like this can also be connected to Second Life. Many people feel that Second Life is all about sex which is weird to think about at first since the physical aspect of sex seems crucial. In Turkle?s (1995) interviews with people who engage in netsex she found that ?They are constantly surprised by how emotionally and physically powerful it can be. They insist that it demonstrates the truth of the adage that ninety percent of sex takes place in the mind (p. 21).

One difference between literature and code that Hayles (2005) reminds us about is that code is not so easily understandable with the passing of time. ?Although they can still produce documents using these versions, they are increasingly marooned on an island in time, unable to send readable files or to read files from anyone else? (p. 51). This seems even more disturbing for those poor avatars who might eventually be left ?marooned? in an inactive world. I thought about this when I was investigating other virtual environments that are becoming less and less popular with the success of Second Life. I wonder if people feel any worse about abandoning an avatar or persona in a social world than they would about abandoning word processing programs?

One (of many) things I would like to discuss during class time is the Weizenbaum example Hayles (forthcoming) illustrates on pp. 27-28. Hayles writes that, ?In brief, it [the computer] possesses the kind of cognitive state that psychoanalysts train for years to achieve? (Hayles, forthcoming, p. 28). I wonder to what extent psychoanalysts really hope to achieve this. I am thinking now about when designers and writers says that when they are looking for critique of their work they try to separate themselves emotionally from their work so that can accept criticism and not take it personally. On the one hand this would help them remain more objective and prevent hurt feelings but would a complete emotionally sever from work have other negative effects as well?

Posted at 01:22PM Nov 14, 2007 by klnorris in General  |  Comments[2]