Many have written of a disturbing trend among our tech elites of recent years.  About their untoward fascination with sci-fi dystopias and their desires to make these stories reality.  Second Life was created as a bid to mimic the world featured in "Snowcrash".  Unmentioned but just as influential was Stephenson's other novel, "Diamond Age".  It too was a warning novel, a story about a poor girl who is raised by a cloth dummy mother (like those poor Rhesus lab monkeys), in the form of a virtual reality book.  Our elite techs ignored the disembodied VR which could give no maternal comfort to an orphaned child and just focused on the VR represented in the book.  And they wanted to create it in reality.

Well they did to a certain extent.  And were also gravely disappointed that it didn't change it's users in quite the same way it changed a fictional, motherless child.  They were all so gung ho to teach us to "share and share alike", mainly by giving up our IP to the void for free.  It didn't work and it is still not working.  Whether or not Philip Linden and cohorts are still interested in this project of reeducation remains to be seen.  But now they are on a path to mimicking other dystopias.

"Finally, Rosedale mentioned the possibility of creating AI avatars that could learn from interacting with the avatars of humans in Second Life. "I find it very likely that any artificial intelligence we create will live first in a world like this," said Rosedale."

"At the time, I would have bet that by 2009, a group of us would have moved on to the brain project. After all, building Skynet always felt like an appropriate follow on to Second Life."

Work. Software for companies to work better and faster. 
Money. A digital replacement for world currencies. 
The Brain. Can 10,000 computers become a person?



Singularity University Lecture in which Philip Rosedale (Linden) compares SL mainframes to a brain.

In recent news regarding Second Life, it seems the last CEO (M Linden) has been shown the door for the return of Philip Linden to the helm.

As I've previously written, M Linden was vilified by the general SL populace for all that was wrong in SL.  I did not adhere to this storyline.  In fact I thought it more likely that M was hamstrung by the incredible backstabbing mess of a corporate culture that Philip Rosedale dumped into his lap.  He cut some fat then was cut himself.  I've seen it happen before in companies I've worked for and companies in the news.  So it was no surprise that he would be labeled the fall man.

However the rejoicing over Philip Linden's return is premature.  Most SL residents are under the assumption that old Phil will be up to his old tricks.  But that isn't the deal at all.  Philip Linden has a new direction and he has left SL far behind.

In my last post about Rosedale's Love Machine I highlighted that it was an extension of the JIRA policy that ruined Linden Lab's culture.  But Love Machine has a more ambitious plan behind it.  It is Rosedale's bid to create an independent AI.  Far from being a tabulated record of love or hate votes, it will probably be taking in data about why the voters voted the way they did.  And through that information, Rosedale hopes to fashion the basis for his AI.  But besides it being used by a high profile company such as Kevin Rose's Digg, I haven't heard of it taking off with any amount of success.  Perhaps it didn't attract the VC it had been hoping to receive.  And Digg couldn't provide it with enough voting data to fashion a prototype AI.

So now back to Second Life.  Which Rosedale has already likened to brain like activity.  A collective data point of every user's creativity and decision making.  A sizeable test bed to launch Love Machine.  Because just maintaining a virtual world was not Philip Linden's total interest.  All his interviews and comments point to this end result.  He needs SL to provide a launch pad for his AI.  He needs it to grow because the larger the data from willing test subjects, the better for the Love Machine project as a whole.  The same way the JIRA stratified residents into fighting over bugs and services, I'm sure the Love Machine will now be used in lieu of the old search mechanism in the browser.  It has been said that the search function was broken deliberately and remains unfixed.  I wonder how long it will be before all of us are asked to give Love votes for our favorite places and why.

Just how much will this Love Machine data collection system permeate the grid?  How will it affect the SL world culture?   Will it destroy it as much as JIRA destroyed Linden Lab?  Does Philip Linden care about the fallout caused by all these possible ill will votes?

He told us the world was safe in his recent address.  It is for now.  But when he receives all the information he needs for his new company, I doubt he will have much enthusiasm for keeping Second Life running.  He will most likely fob it off to another hastily chosen CEO and let it find it's own level.

I believe Linden Lab is basically gone.  It is Love Machine handling Second Life now for the time being.  We are now the side show not the attraction.

The dystopia I believe the techs are emulating now is not the Terminator Skynet from Cameron's films but the AI Proteus in the old 70's flick "Demon Seed".  A film in which this insane AI raped a helpless woman and created it's own love child.

Hence, I give you the genesis of the Love Machine.

Jade Dynasty

Through my Crossover Games program, I decided to try out "Jade Dynasty".  This would be my first exploration of the Asian mmorpg genre.

What Asian mmorpgs have in their favor is a mythology that is fresh, centered in asian folktales.  This is enjoyable because I feel the european medieval myths used frequently in US/European based mmorpgs are played out.  I mean there are only so many times one can be a stalwart knight.

Jade Dynasty begins straight forwardly with a simple character creation page.  A new player will only decide what their avatar will look like when entering the game.  Choosing a class for the avatar will only occur later in the game (Lvl 15).  The opening area is lovely, it consists of a beautiful city called Sunstream surrounded by fields, temples and mansions.  Each game area has wonderful graphics and design.

The opening quests are simple basically consisting of talking to another character, finding items or killing so many of these enemies.  Your avatar is given a variety of different weapons to use.  It really doesn't matter which weapon is chosen because gameplay will change once you choose a character class.

The hook in the game mythology is about a hero called Shaw Danon.  At some point in time, he fell from grace and it is up to the player to find out why and perhaps redeem him.  Players also discover that a thwarted love is also a part of Shaw Danon's history.

The game interface is simple with icons for attack moves.  However there is also an extra bar for a special attack called the Esper.  The Esper attack bar also allows a bot function in which the user can go AFK while still essentially playing.  Believe me, you will need that function.  Another bot function to gain experience is called Meditation.  Essentially the player is able to go AFK in a home city, click on the meditation button (a small Buddha icon at the top of the screen) and then gain experience.  Average experience gained from meditation is about 200 points a minute.  I've read as characters gain levels, the experience for these bot functions will lessen in value.

The bot functions are extremely necessary because what you have read about asian grinders is true.  Jade Dynasty has an extremely large number of levels to master.  And leveling is slow...very slow.  What is worse is that the storyline quests are used in cliffhanger fashion.  Each area consists of 15 levels each avatar must grind before moving on to the next.  Usually the major quest lines end about 5 levels into an area before advising the character to move on.  However your character will need to level up 10 more levels before being able to follow the story into the next game area.  Which means the game crashes into a wall with the story on hold while your character will be forced to do dailies in order to catch up to the next part of the story.  I gamely tried to work with this mechanic but truthfully its worn me down after only hitting level 35.  

The game is free to play with a cash shop that has numerous interesting items.  But unlike other free to play games that give you a lot of bang for your buck, Jade Dynasty cash is on par to the dollar.  1 dollar equals 1 gold piece in the Jade Dynasty cash shop.  So most items are extremely expensive.  Interestingly the game does not allow you to supplement your in game money with real money.  I don't understand this, because the cash shop in other F2P games allow this essential function.  In Jade Dynasty you must grind for your money as you grind for more levels.  There is also a strange player to player sell mechanic.  In the major city, Sunstream, players put their items for sale in cute little cat treasure boxes.  But there are no rules about where to put these boxes so they are laid out willy nilly.  Many times there are so many of these player boxes that it is hard to see NPCs or even your own character toon.  I've looked into these boxes and they are filled with things that were of no value to my low level character.  And it would take a day or so running to each box to find something I could use.  This game needs an auction house in the worst way.

Despite the many things Jade Dynasty has going for it, it is killed by the grinding mechanic.  Which I've read is a standard in many Asian mmorpgs.  Apparently Asian audiences don't mind being forced to do hard time in their games.  Honestly, I wouldn't make real felons play this game or others like it.  Its soul killing.  I don't believe that I will be going back to Jade Dynasty with any regularity.  But if you have the patience to keep with it, it will pay off with a lovely high level character, beautiful fight graphics and other goodies.

Wave those Arms!

Remember Cruise waving his arms like a spastic in "Minority Report"?  Well, now its a reality.  I can't figure out if it is a cool idea or really stupid.

They say it will take about 5 to 6 years to get this new tech into the stores for consumers.  That is probably a little pie in the sky...maybe a lot.  Damn, is it going to break a lot of old software.  But maybe that is the point.

The tech world likes to eat its own.  Its one of the ways they keep us locked into their systems and paying outrageous prices for equipment/consulting.

All for Love

For quite some time, I've noticed a smallness of character inside Philip Rosedale.  A flaw, if you will, in the great work.  This does not negate my past opinion that the man has real genius.  He does, but like all of us, he is at the mercy of the subconscious.  Each of us labors under the aspirations of who we hope to be and just as surely hampered in these aspirations by desires that work against them.

Rosedale wants so much to be an influential cultural pundit.  He sincerely wants to make the world a better place through technology.  But each time he creates, he plants a seed of destruction.  In Rosedale's case, he has a need to set opposing forces in motion.  Which doesn't have to be as catastrophic as it sounds, but Rosedale sets them up in such a way that there must be a victor.  And the more bloody the victory, the more legitimate the winner.  He presided over these blood battles at Linden Lab when he set up the policy of the JIRA(Malaby - Making Virtual Worlds - Ch 2, pg. 76)

The JIRA had a horrific effect on the company and employee spirit.  It encouraged the formation of employee gangs that would kill or vote up specific issues that these gangs favored.  Not only that, it completely marginalized departments that were not glamorous.  Frankly it was ridiculous that a department such as accounting should have to compete against the technology division in a JIRA policy war.  Did Rosedale even notice this deformation in the company character created by the JIRA?

Apparently not, because he then instituted the JIRA for residents as well.  So the warfare metastasized outside company walls into Second Life itself.  It pitted resident against resident and resident versus Linden Lab employee.  The gangs enlarged creating a cutthroat atmosphere that completely disenfranchised minority voices.  Simply because they did not have the numbers to combat the gangs.  Linden Lab employees so used to working the JIRA inequities in house, used the public JIRA to force their own interests or bury ones they did not favor.  Some residents who voted consistently against popularity were banned from the JIRA boards.

But none of this ruffled Rosedale's feathers because he was under the impression that, ultimately, crowds would vote for their best interests.

He is once again working on a project that uses psychological warfare, a company called Love Machine.  In essence it works on the JIRA type of spirit.  A company with the Lovemachine in place enables employees to send "love" to other employees.  These "love messages" (commendations) are then posted on computer screens around the office for all to see.  At the end of each quarter, management can then count how many love messages an employee received or did not receive and base promotions upon this horrific system.  It doesn't take even a dunderhead to realize the problems in this system.  The fact that it would once again inspire employees to form gangs in order to give a thumbs up to certain employees or lynch mob employees they would like to jettison.  What is even worse is that it doesn't factor in malfeasance from management that could skew the love results.  Just as it did with the JIRA at Linden Lab.  Like the JIRA, the Love Machine would and will create balkanized groups voting for their own interests, their own people.

Somewhere along the line, Philip Rosedale conceived the notion that he could change people psychologically for the better.  That through his technology he could institute cultural experiments that would inspire people to be more communal or selfless.  That he would be able to short circuit the motivation for individuals to be self serving.  But each time he attempts this grand experiment it blows up in his face.  I don't understand why he keeps banging his head against this particular wall.  It only leads me to believe that he enjoys the wars he causes and legitimizing the notion of might makes right.  Despite his genius, he doesn't recognize the fascistic motivations swimming deep down inside his own mind.  He uses these policies to convince himself that he is selfless in his love for his fellow man but works in such a way that is anything but selfless.  I don't believe that he respects people outside of the technology business.  Because if he did, he wouldn't have the need to change us.  The sooner he recognizes this fault in himself, the sooner he will create something truly groundbreaking.  Unless he truly enjoys being a Marquise de Merteuil, then all bets are off or more likely voting up love messages.

Second Life Plays

Last week, I finally purchased a ticket to see the last show of ART's production of "Alice In Wonderland". The experience made me question whether or not stage productions can find a proper place on this grid and others.  I must add a caveat with this semi-review, I do know most of the actors in ART and have worked with some of them.  But this is in no way influencing my review of their production.

ART made a very commendable effort in trying to use the grid as a part of their production.  In essence some scenes had an interactive effect.  The audience falls with Alice down the rabbit hole and swims in her tears.  Those special effects were delightful.  But I couldn't help thinking that they were somewhat of a distraction in some ways and only showed how stodgy the conventional staging appeared (more on this later).  The virtual sets were lovely on the whole and really captured the charm of Tenniel's illustrations.

The voice acting was well done.  However I sensed problems with the rushing of line delivery in a few scenes (particularly the Cheshire cat and Tea Party scenes) and some did not savor Dodgson's wonderful nonsense dialogue as much as they should have.  I noticed there were a lot of actors switching parts through out the performance which I did not like.  Simply because the characterization work was extremely different and it led to uneven performances in regards to some characters.  The character of Alice suffered greatly from this sharing of the part between 2 actresses, they each had different vocal quirks which led to wildly different interpretations through the play.  Another short coming was the use of a narrator to connect disparate scenes.  This, however, is a problem with the source material itself.  The books work on dream logic and nonsense story lines, so the scenes do not fit.  Therefore the narrator keeps it together loosely.  However when transferred to stage, the narrator just comes across as an unneeded element.  We didn't need him/her to describe the scenes or the reactions of the actors.  The narration could have been cut entirely.

Despite these few problems the production was, I thought, successful and it was a great hit with the audience.

The production did inspire me to question whether or not acting performances have a proper place in Second Life.  The grid by it's very nature is interactive and requires individual and collective input from it's users.  Performances require spectators not interactive collaborators.  An audience allowed to run free during a play is just mayhem.

As a voice actor in SL, I've had frustration in battling against the problems of the grid (lag, griefers, unreliable voice software, and unexpressive avatars).  I've also noticed that the grid is much larger in spirit then the old forms of plays and films.  We are not taking full advantage of it's pluses.  But what are those pluses?

In ART's Alice production, there was a hint of it in those few interactive scenes.  How could that be expanded?

Should there be a fourth wall in SL?  Especially when the platform itself works on the notion of no dividers.  As an actor, I believe there should be some remnant of the fourth wall.  Without it, plays would become the equivalent of dinner shows like "Medieval Times".  But it should be reconfigured.  I don't believe audience members should have to sit.  Nor should they be condemned to gawk at a stage.

The future of plays in SL and other grids will be some kind of audience interactivity.  What if they could move through sets (abet with some restrictions) or become impromptu extras?  I like the idea of having the audience move through time and space with the actors.  To follow our character's journeys with their own avatars.

I envision the audience as party members at the Capulet's ball....  Plays should be presented with this aim in mind.  To set the audience free from their seats.