Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Botgirl vs. Human Comic Part 6

Series can be viewed in full resolution here.

Die Human 6

4 comments:

Dale Innis said...

Oooh, that friend looks familiar! :)

But who is that in the upper right? The plot thickens?

Camilla said...

"Face it. If there wasn't something more real about my life than yours, you wouldn't be handing so much of it over to me."

Bingo.

Forelle Broek said...

"Face it. If there wasn't something more real about my life than yours, you wouldn't be handing so much of it over to me."

No, I don't see how that follows at all. Perhaps "more compelling", "more engaging", "more entertaining", "more enjoyable", "more satisfying", etc. But what's the basis for asserting that something someone devotes significant time and energy to must be "more real" than the rest of their life? What does "real" even mean in this context?

I do think questions about avatar identities and the relationship(s) between avatar-selves and physical-selves are very interesting. And I've been enjoying this series as one effort to address these questions (as well as for its sheer humor). My own view is that the "real/virtual" dichotomy simply misses the mark and isn't even much worth debating.

I've been reading Tom Boellstorff ethnographic account of SL, "Coming of Age in Second Life", which I highly recommend. The thrust of his analysis is that "virtuality", far from being distinct from "real life", is a fundamental part of social/cultural existence and human-ness. More generally, I'd advocate an anthropological/sociological approach, more than a psychological approach, to questions of "self" and "identity". Goffman, Garfinkle, and Simmel would be my starting points.

Botgirl Questi said...

dale: it's supposed to be the human's child, but could be anyone breaking the "magic circle."

princess: Games of chance are a great alternative!

forelle: Ah. What does real mean? Based on months of comments and discussions, it means different things to different people in different contexts. I'm starting to think more useful questions might be ones like "What is important" and "What should I do based upon my aims and values?"