A life less ordinary offers far more than just escapism - University of ...

Technology Virtual worlds
A life less ordinary
offers far more
than just escapism
People don’t make do with just the real world any
more. Powerful PCs, widespread broadband and
sophisticated computer graphics have spawned a
series of alternative online realities where new
societies are quickly evolving from scratch.
In a three-part special report beginning this week,
New Scientist investigates the impact of virtual worlds.
Do they offer a more liberating experience than real
life, or does anonymity bring out our worst instincts?
What other virtual experiences are on the way, and
which will win – those that closely resemble the real
world, or a virtual universe of worlds to suit all tastes?
anil ananthasWaMy
WILLIAM WISE had always felt he
should have been born a woman.
A year and a half ago, he finally
got the chance to live as one. He
chose a provocative new look:
a cute, contemporary hairstyle
with bangs, a tank top with
spaghetti straps and a plunging
neckline, and bare midriff. There
was one twist, however. He had
to live inside an online virtual
world called Second Life.
This alternative persona
(pictured above), which goes by
the name Jani Myriam, allowed
him finally to understand what
it was like to live as a woman –
something he felt unable to test
out in the real world, but which
gave him immense fulfilment.
“I liked myself so much better as
Jani – she was fun, happy, even
bold and witty, while the real-life
me was overwhelmed with fear
and self-doubt,” he says.
The realisation sparked a
personal transformation. Wise
came out as a transsexual to his
family and friends, and is now
preparing for several operations
that will change his gender in
the real world too, where he will
soon be known as Rebecca.
“I eventually discovered what a
transsexual was and that I might
well be one,” he explains.
Elsewhere in Second Life,
Wise’s story is starting to be
repeated. From people with
gender concerns or disabilities to
those dealing with the aftermath
of cancer and stroke, this popular
virtual world is becoming a
uniquely comforting place for
those who find reality challenging
or hostile. Far from isolating them
from the real world, however,
what people do in the virtual
space is feeding back into, and
improving, their real lives.
Political and social activism is also
taking root in the virtual world,
sparking hopes that it could
change things in the real world.
It hasn’t always been obvious
that virtual goings-on could feed
back into the real world. When
Linden Lab of San Francisco,
California, started Second Life
in 2003, it quickly gained a
reputation as being little more
than a hippy hang-out, where
people had cyber sex, took virtual
drugs and indulged in eccentric
games, such as a virtual
recreation of the Boston tea party.
However, Second Life has
since morphed from a virtual
playground into a force for
change in the real world. As
virtual objects and services
gained real-world value, a
flourishing internal economy
emerged, and real-world
businesses started to take notice.
Meanwhile people began to see
the virtual space as a forum that
enhanced some forms of social
interaction.
“There are signs that we are
witnessing the birth of a
significant new modality of
human interaction,” claims the
website of Tom Boellstorff, an
anthropologist at the University
of California, Davis, who has been
“Second Life has morphed from a playground
into a force for change in the real world”
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–William Wise’s alter ego, Jani Myriam–
studying the impact of virtual
worlds on relationships since
2004, via his avatar Tom
Bukowski. “You’ll see all kinds of
expansions of virtual worlds into
domains of human life that we
can’t predict,” he adds.
So what makes virtual spaces
appealing? A significant aspect is
the ability to choose your own
body. “In the actual world, we
are born with bodies ,” says
Boellstorff. “We can change them
only with significant difficulty
and expense.” That’s not the case
inside Second Life, where
residents are free to customise
how they look with a few mouse
clicks. Even apart from being able
to change your gender, this has
“all kinds of implications”, says
Boellstorff, particularly for
disabled people, who in Second
Life can do the same things with
I feeL your paIn
you are inside a C17 military transport
plane, your hands shackled. a black
hood drops over you, and the
screen goes dark. soon you hear the
sounds of a plane landing, and see
glimpses of light through your
hood. a prison official shouts “shut
up!” and there is clanging of metal
against metal. Eventually, you end up
kneeling inside a cage, with barbedwire
fencing all around.
“it’s a slightly visceral experience,”
says nonny de la Peña. the los angelesbased
documentary film-maker has
developed a version of the Us military
prison at Guantanamo Bay inside the
virtual world of second life, together
with Peggy Weil of the University of
their bodies as everyone else.
Susan Tenby of the San
Francisco-based non-profit group
TechSoup.org, which provides
affordable technology products
to other non-profits, remembers
the instant she realised Second
Life’s potential for people with
disabilities. “For me, the ‘Aha!’
moment was when I stumbled
upon a [virtual] quadriplegics’
meeting,” she says. She found
people there who were severely
disabled in real life but able to
walk or even fly in Second Life.
“I said to myself, ‘Wait a minute,
these are real people. This isn’t
just a game.’” It inspired her to
start Nonprofit Commons, which
offers, among other things, free
virtual office space and furniture
to non-profits wishing to set up
shop in Second Life.
One of those groups is the
Transgender Resource Center
(TRC), which was started by
William Wise, and it is likely that
its work there has already had
an impact in the real world.
Staffed with volunteer avatars,
the TRC provides counselling to
transgendered people, something
that has the power to save lives.
“People with gender concerns
are at a higher risk of suicide
than the general population,”
says Melady Preece, a clinical
psychologist at the University of
southern California, los angeles. their
aim is to simulate what it is like to be
detained without recourse to legal help.
“you can bring home the idea of what it
means to have your habeas corpus
stripped,” says de la Peña.
When you enter the installation,
your avatar is offered an orange prison
suit and a head-up display (hUD), a
virtual object that allows the prison
authorities to control the movements
of your avatar and what you see.
activate it and your vision goes blank,
as if you are shrouded by a hood. you
lose control of your avatar and can be
virtually pulled to any location. the
virtual prison also shows documentary
movies about Guantanamo Bay, and
British Columbia in Vancouver,
Canada, who studies social groups
within Second Life, including the
TRC. “I have no doubt that the
volunteers at the TRC have
prevented, whether knowingly
or unknowingly, a number of
suicide attempts.”
For more than a year, Tenby
has also hosted weekly meetings
at the Commons, where people
from around the world meet to
discuss challenges facing
humanity. She says these
meetings benefit from being
virtual: conversations still occur
in real time, but geographic and
social barriers disappear. For
example, on 22 June, the John
T. and Catherine D. MacArthur
Foundation, a $6 billion
philanthropic organisation based
in Chicago, Illinois, hosted a
discussion in its own virtual
amphitheatre that explored how
virtual worlds could bring about
social change. Tenby mentions
how she found herself standing
next to the president of the
foundation, an opportunity that
doesn’t often arise in real life.
Because Second Life avoids
such real-world limitations, it also
allows people to step into the
shoes of others to raise awareness
of their fate. For example, political
activists are already exploring
this through a simulation of
will soon feature avatars controlled
by constitutional attorneys and
representatives of detainees, who will
talk with visitors.
De la Peña says there are other
places that might be replicated, such
as the Us-Mexico border or the
Palestinian territories. “those are places
with significant social issues that are
being played out all the time,” she says.
“i think the potential for activism and
change is amazing.”
Weil says such simulations are “more
powerful” than a library or museum,
because they exist 24 hours a day, and
anyone from around the world can
enter, keeping issues alive even when
they fall out of the public eye.
Guantanamo Bay that encourages
Second Life visitors to consider
the plight of inmates there (see
“I feel your pain”, above).
There are some who are yet
to be convinced of Second Life’s
ability to produce change in the
real world. “I think the jury is still
out,” says Dave Pentecost of the
Lower Eastside Girls Club of New
York, an organisation that offers
arts, athletic and career skills to
teenage girls.
One problem is that the
benefits are only available to
those with access to computers,
broadband connections and the
keyboard skills required to control
avatars. He also points out that
although the income generated
from virtual activities such as
selling virtual goods is real, it isn’t
yet “compelling enough to pull
people out of poverty”.
There is also another challenge
facing Second Life do-gooders.
The presence of real money
means the world is increasingly
becoming a magnet for people
who want to make a fast buck,
while the earnest attitudes of
some residents are provoking a
backlash from those who would
rather make trouble. We will be
investigating virtual abuse and
misbehaviour in next week’s
instalment of New Scientist’s
virtual worlds report. l
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