Eh, that's sort of a stupid attitude to take. Sure, trying out Second Life takes away time from visiting Tuscany, but visiting Tuscany takes away time from trying out Second Life. He's basically just saying that he thinks that Second Life and the internet are inferior to travel and books.

I find it surprising that he would take that attitude towards something that he did such a great job of envisioning in what appears to have been a fairly accurate manner. As far as I can tell without having actually ever used Second Life, it seems to be essentially identical to Stephenson's Metaverse... and that's neat! I'm not saying he should run for King or anything, but why wouldn't he at least want to check it out?

That being said, I also totally understand dedicated a portion of your life to something and then not being interested in dealing with it again. After Snakes on a Plane came out, I went to see the movie once on the opening evening, and not again. When I got home from LA a few of my friends were going to see it in DC and asked if I wanted to come. I couldn't think of anything I wanted to do less at that point. So maybe Stephenson has a similar attitude about this... he must have dedicated a long, long time to working out the intricacies of the Metaverse when he was writing the book, maybe he just doesn't want to think about it ever again.

Snow Crash was a great book, by the way.

I haven't read Snow Crash in years, but didn't citizens of the metaverse switch consciousness into it, sort of like in a Strange Days kind of way? Second Life is very much like the metaverse, but the medium of participation is still a computer screen.

The last 4,000 pages of Stephenson's fiction have had nothing to do with sci-fi or cyberpunk in any conventional sense. That's probably why he's tired of being asked about Snow Crash.

Yeah, the metaverse is consciousness-subsuming on some level, much as the matrix is in Neuromancer. I can fully sympathize with Stephenson's preference of Dickens or Tuscany without having myself written a prescient description of some future technological development. I'd rather eat mushrooms and run around than spend my time playing around on second life.

It's a preference - you prefer eating mushrooms to playing a warlord in cyberspace. That's understandable. I don't like mushrooms, but in general I'm probably with you. However, I think it's weird not to even see how something that you're credited with conceiving has turned out. Again, I don't think he should dedicate his life to playing the game, but I'm surprised that he's never once bothered to log into Second Life. Why not check it out? It's not like he can't do that AND go to Tuscany.

Well, I think I'm the only one so far who admits to being a resident of Second Life (more on this below). So let me weigh in on the side of preference-based judgments. SL is certainly not everyone's cup of tea--but what I find interesting is the experience is different for everyone. Yes, Stephenson would rather be in Tuscany than in SL. I would rather be in SL than reading Stephenson. Our preferences are different. End of story (well, I agree with him on Tuscany, but give me internet access at the Italian Villa).

But what concerns me is that SL is getting coverage as only a place where people waste time. I think there is more to it than such a simple reading would suggest. Jesse, you say that the metaverse is consciousness-subsuming--and I'm not really sure I know what you mean. For me, SL is a tool of communication and a very innovative community.

For example, I'm collaborating via SL with a librarian in California on getting more universties into SL. Harvard has a class on SL for people who are purely interested in taking a class at the law school. Tonight we have a meeting with folks from the MacArthur Foundation to discuss the future of digital education. Next semester I'm teaching a class on free speech in cyberspace; we are holding office hours in SL.

For SL, the sci fi aspect is both a blessing and a curse: it has been a key motivator in the creation of virtual worlds, yet SL cannot seem to shake the perception that SL is in some way all-consuming and sinister, if not a complete waste of time. I think that is a shame.

Hey Geoff, sorry, I'm just being a humbug for no good reason whatsoever. I don't really mean it. I know nothing about SL.

No worries. I think a lot of people assume SL is just the SIMS in a new format. And for many people it is. But Kurt Vonnegut gave an interview in SL the other day and was wildly positive on it. That says something, no?

I think people overemphasize the "wasting time" aspect of video games. Leisure time is only wasted if you don't enjoy yourself.

Or leisure time is work, if you go that route in your head like a good New School student like me. The more elaborate reason why I wanted to humbug SL was 'cause the first I heard of it was about how advertisers were using it as a new way to reach consumers. Fuck all that, but it's not SL's fault.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/11/13/second.life.university/index.html

Smile :)

I feel like an asshole for saying this, but the more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to have to look into SL.

Take a look. You might not like it, but that's the way it goes. If you are interested, there is a lecture on ethnomusicology tomorrow night. It's open to the public. I can get you more info if you'd like.

I assume our friend w&w will be doing that?

Yup:

http://wayneandwax.com/?p=49

Oh, nice. Well I'll see how fast I can make my entry happen... but I have class tomorrow night at 8, so, um, I don't know if I'll be able to "make it." CM, are you on SL?

I have an account, but I've spent minimal time on it. But I'll try to go to w&w's event tomorrow.

Yup, Wayne will be there. So will some other people. I think it might be interesting.

What time is it at?

From the email announcement I received:

"[W]e are holding a Music & Rights Forum at Berkman Island this Thursday evening at 9pm EST/6pm SLT. Music Professor Anthony McCann (University of Ulster), will lead a panel at which Wayne Marshall (University of Chicago) and Clifford Murphy (Brown University) will present some current research in ethnomusicology on the subject of music production/consumption and copyright. Wayne will be discussing the emergent genre of mashups--mashups usually combine the vocals from one song with the music from another--as a way of discussing current digital production methodology and its relationship to the law. Cliff will be discussing the "mothballing" of old and non-commercially viable music by companies that own the rights to that music.

This event is an experiment in two ways. First, we are experimenting with the idea that presentations about music might be very effective in SL because the audience can both listen to the music and "listen" to the speaker at the same time. Second, we are experimenting with the idea that an academic panel discussion of the sort that usually happens at academic conferences could take place in SL. The purpose of the second goal is to consider whether we might lighten the carbon footprint caused by academic conferences by, at some point in the future, transitioning to holding some of them in a virtual world that would not require airplane travel. (This particular panel is being held in unofficial conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society of Ethnomusicology, which is in Hawaii this year.)"

Well I will be in class for that, unfortunately, but like I said, I'm going to have a look into SL in general. Let me know how the forum goes.

Uh, Second Life deserves little respect because it is built on all kinds of plagiaristic uses of characters and background from Neal Stephenson's novel. Second Life IS NOT IN ANY WAY CLOSE to being a manifestation of what he imagined. It never will be. It is not innovating fast enough, and simply can't match the scope of what Stephenson had in mind - the metaverse as an integral part of the internet itself, just as IRC, the web, usenet, and e-mail are part of the basic workings of the internet. Second Life is a big scam, in that respect. It's hokey and managed by idiocy. It does not have universal appeal or even universal use. So, to me, Stephenson should be suing their asses off, and I would support him, because they are trying to use things HE created to market and hype their BUSINESS. And, that's what it is, a business - not a utility and basic part of the net.

Everyone in SL should stop being cheap and use their own imaginations, or I hope their fingers rot off in the name of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong.

It's not a stupid attitude. It's his personal preference which he has more than a right to take.

He probably doesn't find it interesting.

I have checked out second life. Only went in a few times. The idea of spending money in the world didn't appeal to me. Neither did interacting with strangers.

But I could imagine it being cool to interact with real life friends to all meet up for a cyber pub night out or something. Or for an alternative to a conference call in a work setting.

And by the way - in my opinion Second Life and the internet ARE VASTLY inferior to travel and books. If you seriously think that spending time in second life is as enjoyable or rewarding as visiting Tuscanny I feel deeply sorry for you.