A hundred years ago I listened to this lecture, and wrote down the following incomplete thoughts on it:
-If I have no interest in something new and looming (i.e., the transformation of social order or whatever it is that is heralded by online avatars/identities), is it because I am old and have no vision, or is it legitimate for me to be bored or uninterested in such things?
-Normally your appearance and affects are not true expressions of yourself, but constrained by conveniences and accidents – you don’t have the time or money to dress as you would like, to decorate your apartment as you would like, etc. To some extent this has truth, but on the continuing theme of true signaling, I feel it’s slightly inaccurate to distinguish your True Self as something not integrated into your entire context and environment. In some ways, appearing other than perhaps you would ideally want can be a sign of your priorities or your past priorities or history; in other ways it’s easier to distance responsibility or blame from yourself and say that it’s purely a result of the accident of your circumstances/surroundings which you did not choose, but again, you are not a wholly separate entity from the world and time into which you emerged.
-I guess I have the complete and utter pessimist’s view of humanity – I feel alarmed at the prospect of the sum total of people’s desires, since more and more I am finding everyone to be shallow and short-sighted and otherwise lacking.
-Relatedly, sort of, I find myself continually slipping into a repulsion against the excitement of the freedom and creativity of Second Life, how it allows you to be more like the you you want to be, find out what people do without monetary restraints, etc, because I feel like it fosters a division into the real world, where you have to deny yourself, and the fantasy world, where you can be free. Of course there are myriad desires and so forth that cannot practically be fulfilled in reality once the needs and rights of others are taken into account, not to mention limited resources. And there are also things a person may want to try out or experience or do in fantasy but not in actuality. But since I react this way to it, maybe I’m not the only one who then assumes that the constraints that exist now are somehow inevitable. I don’t know if it’s that I worry that people will be distracted from transforming the real world into as close to this vision of freedom as possible, which may not be a legitimate concern, but let me say that if we are excited about this freedom, we should not only funnel our energy into enjoying this virtual freedom but in recreating it in the real world. Maybe eventually the two worlds will not be so different, but right now they are. I do recognize that it's not as if by spending time manufacturing your freedom online you automatically do not or cannot also contribute to the increase of freedom offline, and it's not always or necessarily the case that our technology and standard of living are made possible by the exploitation of others. I just want to try not to forget that my own personal, intellectual, and political freedom to fully express myself and examine my individuality etc, is only one priority out of many, some of which may be quite dire.
-If I have no interest in something new and looming (i.e., the transformation of social order or whatever it is that is heralded by online avatars/identities), is it because I am old and have no vision, or is it legitimate for me to be bored or uninterested in such things?
-Normally your appearance and affects are not true expressions of yourself, but constrained by conveniences and accidents – you don’t have the time or money to dress as you would like, to decorate your apartment as you would like, etc. To some extent this has truth, but on the continuing theme of true signaling, I feel it’s slightly inaccurate to distinguish your True Self as something not integrated into your entire context and environment. In some ways, appearing other than perhaps you would ideally want can be a sign of your priorities or your past priorities or history; in other ways it’s easier to distance responsibility or blame from yourself and say that it’s purely a result of the accident of your circumstances/surroundings which you did not choose, but again, you are not a wholly separate entity from the world and time into which you emerged.
-I guess I have the complete and utter pessimist’s view of humanity – I feel alarmed at the prospect of the sum total of people’s desires, since more and more I am finding everyone to be shallow and short-sighted and otherwise lacking.
-Relatedly, sort of, I find myself continually slipping into a repulsion against the excitement of the freedom and creativity of Second Life, how it allows you to be more like the you you want to be, find out what people do without monetary restraints, etc, because I feel like it fosters a division into the real world, where you have to deny yourself, and the fantasy world, where you can be free. Of course there are myriad desires and so forth that cannot practically be fulfilled in reality once the needs and rights of others are taken into account, not to mention limited resources. And there are also things a person may want to try out or experience or do in fantasy but not in actuality. But since I react this way to it, maybe I’m not the only one who then assumes that the constraints that exist now are somehow inevitable. I don’t know if it’s that I worry that people will be distracted from transforming the real world into as close to this vision of freedom as possible, which may not be a legitimate concern, but let me say that if we are excited about this freedom, we should not only funnel our energy into enjoying this virtual freedom but in recreating it in the real world. Maybe eventually the two worlds will not be so different, but right now they are. I do recognize that it's not as if by spending time manufacturing your freedom online you automatically do not or cannot also contribute to the increase of freedom offline, and it's not always or necessarily the case that our technology and standard of living are made possible by the exploitation of others. I just want to try not to forget that my own personal, intellectual, and political freedom to fully express myself and examine my individuality etc, is only one priority out of many, some of which may be quite dire.
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