During my recent visit to Second Life I experienced a kind of information overload. I was being interviewed by John Hockenberry so my Spidey-senses were on full alert, but meanwhile trying to keep my SL avatar from falling asleep which means I couldn't help but notice all the IM-ing flowing across the screen from the live SL audience. I think I almost had a panic attack. The audience noted my inability to multitask the situation. My "digital native" membership card went into the trashcan in 2001 so it's only natural.
At the recent SIGGRAPH, one of the most popular talks was the fellow from i>SL where he spoke about the higher "emotional bandwidth" one gets with communicating through a fully-rendered avatar versus a pitful smiley like :-). Our resident media philospopher Burak took great offense at this comment. He felt that signs/symbols were invented not because we crave for constant realism in life, but that we can get engage deeper feeling through experiencing abstractions of reality. The more abstract the better, in his mind.
And that's where it is: "in his mind." Where the emotional bandwidth is truly the highest and where no computers (currently) can venture. To live without reality (or even a simulation of it) and to instead be immersed in a sea of symbols and even more abstract thoughts. Seems like one can go crazy in such a world. Luckily the sun is out today and the birds are pecking the grass in my surrounds. Compared to what I deal with on a daily basis, nature is a fairly abstract experience. But it's so real.
Posted by maeda at August 8, 2006 10:17 AM