Not Yet Huxley's "feelies"

"the feelies"
from Brave New World, chapter 11:

The house lights went down; fiery letters stood out solid and as though self-supported in the darkness. THREE WEEKS IN A HELICOPTER . AN ALL-SUPER-SINGING, SYNTHETIC-TALK1NG, COLOURED, STEREOSCOPIC FEELY. WITH SYNCHRONIZED SCENT-ORGAN ACCOMPANIMENT.

"Take hold of those metal knobs on the arms of your chair," whispered Lenina. "Otherwise you won't get any of the feely effects."

The Savage did as he was told.

Those fiery letters, meanwhile, had disappeared; there were ten seconds of complete darkness; then suddenly, dazzling and incomparably more solid-looking than they would have seemed in actual flesh and blood, far more real than reality, there stood the stereoscopic images, locked in one another's arms, of a gigantic negro and a golden-haired young brachycephalic Beta-Plus female.

The Savage started. That sensation on his lips! He lifted a hand to his mouth; the titillation ceased; let his hand fall back on the metal knob; it began again. The scent organ, meanwhile, breathed pure musk. Expiringly, a sound-track super-dove cooed "Oo-ooh"; and vibrating only thirty-two times a second, a deeper than African bass made answer: "Aa-aah." "Ooh-ah! Ooh-ah!" the stereoscopic lips came together again, and once more the facial erogenous zones of the six thousand spectators in the Alhambra tingled with almost intolerable galvanic pleasure. "Ooh …"

The plot of the film was extremely simple. A few minutes after the first Oohs and Aahs (a duet having been sung and a little love made on that famous bearskin, every hair of which–the Assistant Predestinator was perfectly right–could be separately and distinctly felt), the negro had a helicopter accident, fell on his head. Thump! what a twinge through the forehead! A chorus of ow's and aie's went up from the audience."

From the "Miranda 2.0" hypertext of Huxley's Brave New World.


Virtual Realities like Second Life have developed sophisticated visuals and a variety of audio effects from ambient background sounds to site-thematic music, but tactile and olfactory effects for VR have yet to be sufficiently developed for widespread use. Though SL and other VR programs do not have the level of sensory sophistication of "the feelies" described in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, neither are they designed for the same purpose.

The feelies are a multi-sensory, sensational and simple narrative meant as an entertaining distraction for the genetically designed, heavily conditioned consumer workforce that is strictly divided by caste, completely incurious and uncreative. Huxley opens the novel with a group of Alphas, the management caste, brainlessly copying everything they are told - and it never occurs to them to ask any questions.

Second Life particularly contrasts with Brave New World and the feelies because SL not only offers a vast array of character and participatory choices, but it demands thoughtful creative participation of its viewer/users. So, if or when the tactile and olfactory features of Huxley's feelies become available to SL users, we'll at least be able to compose the story and its sensory input ourselves. Additionally avatar-educators, like Professor Ignatius Onomatopoea, are actively deploying Second Life in university classrooms with good results. As forecast by the 2008 Horizon Report by EDUCAUSE, such pedagogical uses of virtual worlds will be widespread on campuses within a few years.

digital shyness & teaching online

Yes, I'm still spending most of my time reading books and wandering through the woods by the James River - what can I say?
My body is drawn to the scents of blossoming milkweed, honeysuckle and wild rose...



What bugs me most about Second Life is that I feel *guilty* for not spending more time "in world" than I do...I guess that's not really SL's problem though is it? Though I'm generally gregarious, in SL I seem to develop some kind of shyness that has kept me from meeting new avatars. And what's up with that??? Can we be proximally gregarious, yet digitally shy?

I've got a little campsite 'classroom' on our island at UR, just behind Boatwright Tower. It's not much, just a tee-pee, a campfire and a few stumps...and most recently I've added some artwork.

I plan to use this space as a classroom for student-avatars next time I use SL in my teaching. The artwork can serve as a research prompt for students (artist, work, era, subject, technique, material) or it could serve as an exercise in visual literacy and considering the meaning inherent in the composition of individual paintings as well as the arrangement of multiple images in a single space.

I taught my first online course this summer, "Literature, Technology & Society" and it was challenging to get students engaged in the course & discussion without ever being in proximity. The original version of the course was going to involve a project in Second Life, but when I discovered the relative technical inexperience of my few students, I decided to save SL for another class.

Though I used Blackboard for most of the course interaction, I had to develop a 'companion website' to contain some of the digital materials for the class including brief audio podcasts about our readings of several novels. To give my students experience in using Web 2.0 tools for developing an 'e-portfolio', final student projects involved creating a blog with several significant entries discussing and connecting our various texts from the course, both typographic and visual.

Ironically, the best blog of the class was created by a student who called herself "the Luddite".

Techno-glitch & SL Conference Presentation

The Matrix within the Matrix?

A brief update on my project with the SL scholars...

During the pre-conference activities, several presentations were scheduled to be held at Louisiana State University in their new Communication Across the Curriculum (CXC) lab.
Iggy and I were presenting our work separately since we had different projects, but while I was demonstrating, my laptop shut down! (and I had recently remarked about readiness for such an event) Fortunately Dr. Lillian Birdwell-Bowels was there to rescue me with a quick SL setup on her laptop while my avatar nodded off, my students became confused and I articulated some what we've found in our research.

It was somewhat confusing for my students, they were at least able to join Iggy's students in some text-chat and see what an academic poster-presentation might look like in SL. In spite of the chaos, the students were able to hear one of Iggy's guest speakers Cecil Hirvi who was using voice-chat which they all could hear and respond to in text. Chaos aside, my SL Scholars were able to post some interesting blog entries about their explorations of this new realm and its pedagogical potentials.

horsing around in SL

Here I am at Danish Visions, an educational island I've discussed before, designed by Tonny Halderman for his business school. I liked the horse so much that Tonny told me where I could buy one of my own - but now I can't find the horse I bought!
(it's a bit harder to misplace a real horse)

Since the surrender of my vocal virginity, I've made only a few other forays into SL since then and I am surprised at how few avatars seem to be using voice chat. It may be that the technology needs a bit of development or it may be our bandwidth limits, but voice has not been as popular as I had expected it would be.

I am preparing to attend the CCCC Convention with Iggy in New Orleans, LA where we will be presenting some of our research about/in Second Life. During our presentation, we will have our avatars meet on the University of Richmond island along with some of the avatars of students who have done some of this exploration with us.

While Iggy has used SL in his "Literature, Technology & Society" course, I've been using it mostly separate from my courses, instead relying on two groups of independent student researchers: high school seniors who attended University of Richmond's Summer Scholars program and university freshmen and sophomores, My Summer Scholars agreed to interview other avatars about their experiences in SL and their thoughts about its educational potential. My university students are exploring educational sites, testing the offerings, interviewing local avatars and taking a few snapshots.

Students then posts their avatar-findings in our research blog and some join us at the convention on April 2 as avatars in Second Life, on the University of Richmond's island.

the symposium of the future?....

voice virgin no more!

Risking digital life & limb with my proximity to the cleaver weilding demonic turkey (back left) that patrols Calletta's Hobo Camp,I finally got myself set up for voice chat in SL with an inexpensive $20 headset with microphone. Here you see me engaged in a voice-chat conversation. The reception was reasonably clear, and it was interesting hearing the voices of the other avatars in my head.

As I've noted in past entries, a key element of spoken word is the unique autograph of embodiment that shapes the soundwaves according to the specific anatomy of the speaker. So, using voice-chat in SL gives avatars a stronger connection to their creators and the specific vocal qualities of each gives greater depth to the character of the avatar. This is but one effect of the resonance of sound.

The only problem with voice-chat is that there is yet no record of the conversation like there is with typed text, no way of recording all the voices in SL dialog.

Thought I thought that voice-chat would make it easier for me to communicate in SL, I still seem to retain a kind of shyness, perhaps more so because my voice is so personal. An unexpected experience!

Another interesting aspect of voice-chat is that avatar voices often carry further than their immediate proximity making it easy to eavesdrop on conversations...
so even loose digital lips might sink digital ships!

A few postings ago, I visited the USC Annenberg conference where "chat" was the main topic of discussion.
During this event major speakers used voice chat while volunteers like Iggy helped to moderate discussion and questions from attendees via type-chat.

In this web page about the discussion,"Chat History from Virtual Worlds" we can see that no voice-chat recording was made, but it makes sense to get voice set up and working smoothly with clear sound before we start recording it. I have tried to record my voice-chat sessions via Mac's GarageBand, but it only picked up my voice. Though I could still hear other avatars, their voices did not record.

Turkey Turns the Tables!

I just thought it fair warning, in these days before Thanksgiving, to let y'all know that there is a demonic turkey in SL at the Hobo Camp and he's fixin' to turn the tables on us and serve up some tasty human avatar for dinner. Check out the glowing demon eyes.
And be sure to note that cleaver he's swinging in his left wing?
(hmmm...why the left wing? must be a right wing conspiracy!)

The bird floats creepily about a foot above the ground, moving randomly and suddenly turning without warning to head off in another direction.

Maybe this bird is a victim of Pappy's moonshine...no telling what's in that ol' still he has!
I think that the mad turkey is a "bot" - an automatic avatar. I'm not sure what the rules are for creating and unleashing these in SL, but the bird makes me want to learn how to script my own SL robots!

Stay tuned!

USC Conference: SL in Education

Recently Beeble briefly attended an 'in-world' SL conference sponsored by Educause and led by the Lindens at the Annenburg Arena at USC: "Hot Topics Discussion on Virtual Worlds". Iggy was helping out at the conference as over 100 professional educators met to discuss ways to use SL in education and to question the Lindens about upcoming possibilities. Since the moderators were going to be the only ones using voice, Iggy's job was to coach attendees how to engage without voice to prevent acoustic overload.

Though the invitations that were sent out suggested professional dress for avatars, there were many strange creatures in the arena, not the least of which was Pathfinder Linden complete with spiky black wings and a tall green hat.

To grab for my few seconds of celebrity, I bumbled up on stage to stand behind Iggy for a snapshot, and not long after he heard someone asking about the unauthorized avatar on the stage - good thing I wasn't in my original 'fuzzy' outfit!




(the tan man is super-suave digi-celebrity Ignatius Onomatopoea - I'm the pale dork behind him)

Imperfection in Second Life

In past postings, I've discussed my avatar friend Pappy Enoch who looks like a black bearded pot-bellied hillbilly in overalls who communicates in what I call a 'bastardized hillbilly dialect' (as if there were an 'official' hillbilly language). Though he looks scary, and though he recently broke out of jail in Tombstone, Pappy is actually quite a southern gentleman and he has attracted a small following.

I've been fascinated and mystified by Pappy's popularity. Pappy's place on Richmond Island looks like an un-mown junk yard with a still, an outhouse and an old truck up on blocks, and as such it seems to run counter to most SL landscapes that are generally clean and orderly. (does a word like 'clean' even apply?) The same seems to be true for most avatars - people generally go for the slick look of 'perfection' even if their costume is bizarre.

My theory is that for most folks, SL is a place to achieve a 'perfection' that we cannot achieve in real life, so we try to design the body image or surroundings that reflect our sense of the ideal, or at least an identity we'd like to try out for a 'test-drive.' Aside from being a vague and variously defined term, 'perfection' is a state that may not be as desirable as we believe - it may not be a worthy goal.

Zamyatin's novel We is an excellent and fascinating exploration of the notion of perfection and other attempts at precise measurement and the world he portrays of individual perfection and uniformity via totally calculated control is at once boring and horrific. So my point about Pappy is that perhaps his minor celebrity is precisely because of his imperfection, not in spite of it.

It may be that, when given the chance to design and interact with the ideal, we find it insufficient and boring and we long for that which lacks such uniformity and transcendence, if unconsciously. It may be that the 'imperfections' we subdue, cover and resist are actually embodied sites of power, delight and wisdom.

The value of imperfect embodiment is explored in Denis Danvers' sci-fi novels The Circuit of Heaven and End of Days as future humans dump their bodies for a chance at immortality and eternal youth inside a digital reproduction of the real world called "the Bin." One of the more chilling scenes in the novel is of the train-carloads of these dumped bodies pulling into the mass incinerators built to dispose of the disparaged flesh. Eventually the perfection and predictability of these realms wears on the residents and they begin to long for their bodies back...

Today I met an SL resident named "Lota" whose avatar was so bulbous that others were asking her if she was pregnant. (what would it mean to be pregnant in SL?) But no, Lota isn't pregnant, she's just FAT - another deliberately designed 'imperfect' avatar.

(this picture doesn't do justice to her wondrously pendulous belly)Though Lota doesn't have the fans that Pappy does, it was clear that she did have a level of celebrity judging by the comments and interaction of surrounding avatars. The imperfection of the situation was also emphasized by someone 'farting' regularly during our conversation. I never asked, but I don't think it was Lota. Fortunately it was the sound of farting only since SL lacks olfactory cues - so far. (but would we want to add smell? and is farting a kind of griefing?)

So, hats off to Lota and Pappy for leading the revolution of imperfection and thereby celebrating our brilliant and uncontrollable embodiment!

Educational Gaming graduate study

During my research into the educational possibilities of Second Life, I came across a blog entry about a graduate course by Bernie Dodge of San Deigo State University called "Exploratory Learning Through Simulation and Games" and he generously invited me into their discussion.

On their class website there are not only links to Second Life resources and commentary, there are materials for exploring and discussing 'low-tech' board games, game theory and world-building or 'scripting' tutorials. The course blog discusses current corporate applications of SL as well as featuring educational projects in other universites.

One thing is for sure - we're beginning to recover from the false notions that gaming is not a serious intellectual pursuit or that fun is not a central component to effective learning.

Thanks to Dr. Dodge & the grad students of SDSU for letting me join in your conversation!

Our Research Team

Though I took a summer hiatus, SL exploration this fall promises to be more expansive and interesting with the addition of some new researchers from UR's Summer Scholars Program who have agreed to explore Teen SL and post their dispatches to our research blog.

Intrepid SL blogger, networker and digital guide Ignatius Onomatopoeia will be checking in from time to time to see our progress. If you haven't seen it already, be sure to check out his "In a Strange Land" blog: to get a survey of some of the creative activity going on in Second Life.

Coffee in Cyberia on the Keweenaw

(*note about my use of first person: my earlier intentions to clarify and separate digital identity as Beeble from my organic identity as an academic explorer have become too cumbersome to continue...my lower case "i" to represent Beeble and my upper case "I" to represent my flesh have not been consistently applied, so from here on I'll use only the traditional capitalized "I" leaving readers to negotiate them)

It's been a while since my last posting, and even with my dismissals of the 'reality' of digital realms like Second Life, I've found myself feeling a bit guilty that I haven't been in more frequently, visiting established friends and making new ones. What can I say? I like my first life quite a bit!

Right now I am vacationing on the Keweenaw Peninsula, a small 'thumb' of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that juts out into the middle of Lake Superior. Anyone who has sweltered through the suffocating hot & humid summers in Richmond will understand why I escape to the cooler climes of the UP. Though they have their hotter days (mid 80's to 90 max) most of the time, the weather here is breezy, sunny and in the mid 70's - a delightful contrast!

Above you can see the location of the peninsula and a typical view Lake Superior.

I'm writing from Cyberia Cafe in Houghton, Michigan run by Steve, and I have to say it's a connected coffee lounge! Though I can't seem to run Second Life on their PC's I hope to interest Steve in taking Cyberia into SL as well so past customers can check in and say hi in some visible form, from anywhere in the world.

I learned about Cyberia when I came up for the 2005 Computers InWriting Intensive Classrooms conference (CIWIC) at Michigan Tech hosted by Cynthia Selfe who now teaches at Ohio State University. In the interdisciplinary field of composition and computers, Selfe is a respected researcher who has advanced our understanding of digital tools, their application to teaching and their impact on us. If she has the time, perhaps Beeble will have to interview her about the pedagogical potential of SL.

I'm heading out on the peninsula for some camping in real life, complete with the soothing rhythms of Superior and the scintillating scents of the vast forests on the peninsula - but I'll be back to report and continue my explorations of SL.

Pappy's cousin LuciferLee

They wouldn't let me in the club in my earthy condition, but I was able to get a picture of Pappy's coustin, the Rev. LuciferLee Enoch, as he was practicing on the piano.

It was a classical piece, Bach I believe, but I was surprised to see him play such a peaceful tune after the fire-breathing sermons I've heard him give!

He's Pappy Enoch's cousin and so a member of the Hellbilly community but since the Rev. went to Bible College he lack's Pappy's distinctive backwoods dialect - though a bit of grit slips through now and again!

When I learned he was a Reverend, I was sure he'd think I was some kind of Swamp Demon and try to banish me or exorcize my muck-n-moss, but instead he greeted me like a brother with a big squishy hug.

Now, I'm not an expert on theology but Rev. Enoch says that most church folk got it all wrong, and that Lucifer is the brother of Jesus, not his nemesis! It sounds crazy, I know, but etymologically "lucifer" means "light bringer" or "shining one" and Jesus is called the "light of the world" and was sometimes described as emitting light....hmmmm. Who knows?
Maybe the Devil isn't the bad guy after all?

According to the Rev. Lucifer taught Jesus how to do the wine thing and that Jesus' priorities were evident in his first miracle where he created a huge 30 gallon jug of good wine for a party.

That's one preacher that makes even my muddy mind work overtime!

It came from the pit!

IS "Beeble Earth" really a 'new look' or is it a clever cover for some kind of mucky swamp-thing?

Things have been getting mighty wierd around Pappy's place lately...

Rumor has it that it came from the pit of Pappy Enoch's outhouse and is now out to "git" him!

It may be something that spontaneously generated when ol' Pap dumped a bad batch of moonshine down the hole...ah, the perils of unplanned experiments...

Some say that Pappy can just shoot him with his double-barrel shotgun, but we all know what happens when bullets hit that which comes from the pit! (it's worse than when 'it' hits the fan)

And as for advances in outhouse technology, the only one I ever used that had absolutely no smell and no flies was a raised outhouse at earthaven ecovillage.
The outhouse they built were a few steps above ground and rather than using a collecting pit, waste is collected above ground in an open-air cage. Combined with scoops of sawdust or bunches of straw, the waste dries and composts with the added material and leaves a dry, odorless material that can be buried or used as fertilizer for plants not meant for food.

Language as technology: voice versus text

Normally I try to avoid advertising for companies, but the Lindens and other creator-residents of Second Life have contributed SO MUCH for free, I think they deserve an exception - and besides, I'm not advertising for their headsets so much as referencing their announcement to begin a conversation about what bringing voice to SL might mean.

Though we don't know for sure when humans first started using spoken language, some estimates are between 40,000 and 250,000 years ago - but there is no way to know for sure without written records! Of course, written records don't always lead to definitive answers either, but at least they provide an artifact to examine and debate. The origins of language may be obscure, but language and particularly the differences between spoken and written expression are more relevant than ever in the digital age.

Second Life began as an image & text-based format where participants type messages to one another's avatars. The conversation appears on the screen and can be logged for future reference. When an avatar is communicating, its hands come up as if it were typing, thus providing a visual cue and the familiar sound of the clacking keyboard adds a sonic cue for participants. Conversational coordination, just like in verbal exchange, is often tricky and related responses rarely follow immediately.

Just as in email and text messaging, some SL residents textual communications are abbreviated or accentuated with emoticons or other semiotic adaptations. And, just as in email and text messaging we never really know for sure who is on the other keyboard - it is *always* an act of faith. Anyone with sufficient technical skill can represent themselves as anyone else and only a close reading by an intimate friend would be likely to detect such deception.

Oral communication on the other hand is more difficult to fake, particularly since human hearing is quite adept at detecting subtleties of sound. Voice recognition has been one of the advantages of spoken communications over electronic media, and could provide certain identification since the pattern of our vocal expression is as singular as our finger print. Though fingerprinting or dactyloscopy has been around since the 19th Century, the science of biometrics is booming in our timid, terrified post 9/11 world. From entry gates at the local gym to forensic analysis, biometric technologies are being widely deployed for identity detection.

Thought I'm not certain whether the voice choice in SL will relay our spoken expression with accuracy and an identical voice print via spectrographic analysis, simply introducing the option of vocal verbal communcation will be a fascinating change offering many opportunities for intriguing intellectual discussion.

VUI (voice user interface) design and ASR (automated speech recognition) may combine to provide an accurate and unique transmission or rendition of our spoken communications such that we will no longer have to make that "leap of faith" that has become our default response when communicating via typed text. Further, if SL includes the option of an audio log as it does for text communications a heightened level of security or certainty may be possible.

While this is appealing, and perhaps an answer to the prayers of the most frightened, like all policing technologies, it may have an ugly underside. Since the human brain has had the longest "imprinting" with spoken language and most of us learned how to speak before we learned how to write, our oral composition skills are so automatic that we hardly notice them. Because of this, most of us speak freely and spontaneously, and sometimes to our great regret. What would a world be like that recorded every word we ever spoke?

I trust the Lindens more than I'd trust the government, so I doubt that Second Life will devolve into such an invasive policing technology, but the introduction of voice communications will certainly revolutionize this new exciting realm.

Beeble's NEW LOOK: "Beeble Earth"

To continue the emphasis on Nature and embodiment, Beeble has a new look called "Beeble Earth" - a mix of topsoil and hanging moss. Beeble Raccoon is still with us, but taking a much needed vacation: he's exhausted from all the teasing he got for being a furry!

I plan to continue my interviews and hope my new look won't be as much of a distraction as a six-foot raccoon. I suppose I could choose a more "normal" look, but why do that when it's so easy to make up something new and change it from time to time?











One of the SL residents Beeble Raccoon interviewed is Kyo Runo, an 18 year old woman from the UK who changed her avatar image constantly as I struggled to keep up with her. Her inventory of looks and skill at change-on-the-fly changes was amazing to watch - not to mention embarrassing for an avatar who still has trouble moving digitally!

Beeble may never become so adept, but it looks like there will be new looks to come!

Second Life for teaching?

I continue to explore the pedagogical possibilities of SL, and though I've just begun, I have found several interesting and useful sites. I'll give a brief overview in this entry and return to focus in greater detail on specific sites in following entries.

My colleague Ignatius Onomatopoea has been exploring SL educational possibilities as well, from movie making to SL libraries specifically designed for teachers, and he discusses some of this in his Richmond Times Dispatch blog "In a Strange Land." Educators interested in how these technologies can be used would do well to keep up with Iggy's blog. The wide variety of the postings on Iggy's blog also demonstrate possible uses for teaching, from interviews to character design & development to learning how to script objects.

I've accompanied Iggy on interviews of SL educators like Milosun Czervik, a professor at Virginia Tech University who raised money in Second Life for the victims of their recent shooting. Czervik has also generously populated the ICT Library in Second Life with lots of free materials for teachers who want to use SL for teaching.

One of my first interviews was with Tonny Halderman, an SL designer who also teaches at 'The Business Centre - Horsens Business School' in Denmark. One of his islands "Danish Visions" includes a windfarm and what he calls a "learning object" meant to help train those who assemble the precision-made Nissen gearbox cooling mechanisms for wind turbines in real life.


On his other island "Media Learning" as he discussed creating appropriate "learning spaces" for specific needs, he took me to a promontory overlooking an ocean complete with relaxing rhythmic waves whose calming litany was woven with the sounds of birds and breeze.

Of course, olfactory cues are absent, but even if the Linden's found a way to digitally duplicate scent, would it be the same as a smell naturally emitted from a biological object?
(yesterday on the James River, I noticed the slightly sweet smell of the rocks I had noticed in the mountains)

Even so, though only two senses were engaged, the sense of relaxation was surprising.

Tonny noted that this particular spot might be an effective space to balance high-intensity discussions or as inspiration for more meditative and reflective work.

Who knows? Maybe SL has the potential to become a new space for the mediation of conflict without the enhanced emotion that accompanies the experience of your opponent's embodied presence.

Brave New Worldz

Huxley would have been fascinated by Second Life, but I'm not sure whether he spend much time there - or maybe he would, but this time he would 'write' Brave New World with SL avatars! I suppose that would have to be a collaborative project, one of the many new possibilities in this realm: the participatory novel with people from all over the world creating avatars for Bernard & Lenina, the Savage and Mustapha Mond.

I've been working on a hypertext of Brave New World, and now I can display its homepage in SL and visitors can link to it and browse - an exciting pedagogical application of this new frontier.

Huxley's novel is now more relevant than ever with advances in genetic engineering, psychiatric drugs and the naturalization of constant consumer conditioning - though his world did not sit under the threat of nuclear war.

Though the phrase "brave new world" was not originally meant as an automatically positive statement, the word 'brave' at the time Shakespeare used it in "The Tempest" meant not only courage, but also showy and both seem to apply to Second Life - and this world is just beginning to unfold....

hillbilly in cyberspace?

Pappy's 'camp' on UR Island -





One of the most interesting characters i've run into in SL seems to have set up his hillbilly camp on UR island. Pappy Enoch is a tall, mean-looking, pot-bellied guy with shaggy black hair and beard in "seasoned" overalls. Though he looks mean, he's actually quite friendly and seems to have accidentally collected some fans.
If you have a Second Life avatar, you can visit Pappy's camp.

What makes Pappy unique in SL is that he is an "imperfect" character, one that includes many traits that we "wise moderns" have rejected as inferior or incorrect. For example, Pappy speaks in a kind of dialect, he seems to invent it rather than mimic an currently used dialect - not 'correct' but nevertheless communicative and engaging for others.

Pappy has a junk-strewn, overgrown area on UR Island where he has an old dog named Dixie Moonshine and he's a friendly guy in spite of his menacing, paunchy exterior (and that smell).
Recently Pappy had a contest to name the dog, and quite a few folks submitted ideas - in hillbilly!

It may be that Pappy's popularity is an indication of homogenization in SL and our human thirst for diversity and "imperfection". Or it cold be that Pappy represents an older set of values more focused on self-reliance, basic hospitality & civility and celebration of life.
(hence the moonshine still)

Or perhaps people are just having fun catching on to Pappy's playful hillbillisms...and PLAY is the key here. Pappy was clearly created for playful purposes and this seems to be a big part of his appeal. In fancypants academic terms this is the realm of the "ludic" from latin 'ludere' or to play - spontaneous, joyful creativity.
NOT purposeless, NOT a waste of time, but a key ingredient to intellectual growth and learning - not to mention pleasure!

Another interesting side to Pappy is his echoes of the Foxfire books that captured the fading 'low-tech' ways of mountain people in Georgia. These books contain techniques for self-reliance and independence that most of us have already lost, but which are likely to be damn handy in the future.

You didn't think the supply of electricity was going to be endless did you? That's what we hope, but it's not very likely. Between unchecked Enronian corruption to the serious changes in the weather that we're experiencing, it seems a bit naive for us to assume an uninterrupted, affordable flow.

Pappy and folks like him (those few left) will do just fine with their hillbilly ways, but what about the most techno-laden of us?
As was demonstrated recently in a 'blackberry blackout' many of us are quite vulnerable and useless without our techno-toys.

Doesn't sound like evolution to me.

connection in SL

Though i've been a clear fan of biological embodiment, i have to admit that the two avatars i interviewed in Second Life remain on my mind - primarily because i've been too busy to get back in touch even though both Tonny & Faith tried.



So, this entry is about my awakening to the strength of a digitally made connection of friendship and a public apology to my two friends Tonny & Faith whom i've snubbed so rudely - i'm sorry. Thanks for taking the time to help me.

This is a whole new world that, without replacing the richness of our biological matrix, can be a new space where humans get along in new ways, perhaps evolving someday into a whole new form of social organization that augments rather than replaces embodied, face-to-face interaction.

boomerang book

If you've read these few posts, you'll know that their scarcity is due partly to my disinterest in digital life, but in a fascinating technological irony, the 500-year old technology of the BOOK boomeranged me right back into SL with renewed enthusiasm. (so is that book a traitor to its specific medium?) The book that betrayed the others is second life: the official guide.

Yesterday i, uh, my creator...
(Beeble speaking here of his biological maker, one of many (i's) eyes)
or should i say I? - Beeble has tried to distinguish himself with the lower-case first-person. This identity stuff is endless...of course playing with identity didn't start in Second Life, nor with the book, but waaay back in shamanic history, identity shift was/is a regular practice.

So, nothing shamanic or anything, but i will be Beeble, and I will be his creator.
(and perhaps this "I' should be expressed in bold italics, for emphatic embodiment - 'emphatic' deriving from 'to show' or 'to appear')

got that?

(yesterday, I attended a UR Learning 2007 teaching & technology conference, and my colleague, known as Ignatius Onomatopoeia in SL, was showing his hilarious but informative video of his SL explorations so far. I'll try to get a link to it. It's worth seeing just for the scenes of him dancing in a gorilla suit!

And so the question arises, arose during the demonstration, what's the academic value? How do we apply this in the classroom? Hmmm....how indeed! I'm sure the same questions were asked of the BOOK once too!

The keynote speaker for the mini-conference was Dr. Phil Long of MIT's Office of Educational Innovation and Technology - I like the order of those words because it places the priority on education, not technology and it leads with educators. In his talk, he inadvertently affirmed educational and design principles that were articulated by transcendentalists like Emerson and Peabody and utopians like Fourier and in more modern novels like Gilman's Herland, Skinner's Walden Two, Callenbach's Ecotopia or Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time.

Modern studies are confirming what our elders knew: learning behaviors, patterns and spaces should have some freedom to form their natural shape based on student interest and engagement. Learning should involve the body and real-world experiments. Learning should be diverse in content and approach, and face-to-face human interaction is an essential part of the process of learning.

The specific educational/intellecutal value of SL is primarily its invitation to creativity and "world building" as Iggy puts it. One thing many teachers have noticed of students is the waning of creative thinking and SL has many tools to spark this. Beyond that however is the intellectual value of critical discussion of this world as it evolves, as we are changed by it as we create it. Old forms of social interaction are morphing, mutating into something else...no doubt both good and bad.

SL can facilitate inter-cultural exchange as can be experienced with Iggy's new hillbilly friend "Pappy Enoch" known for his famous cry: Wee Doggies!
OR it can be a bit more sober like the Student Symposium work on display at the UR Tower.


Using SL in class, Teachers would be free to create any kind of classroom, demonstration, image, multimedia exhibit, tour, interactive space...whatever they wanted and could afford, but it can be used for free.

The Basic membership is free and you can play for years if you're not digitally materialistic (oxymoronic?) but with a Premium membership, for only a few dollars you can have access to tremendously powerful digital creation tools. And if your school won't support your work by buying real estate or building an island, you can always meet at public spaces with your students or tour the vastness of Second Life - more than likely there will be a group, exhibit or place that matches with your particular discipline. )

so, to boomerang full circle, beware the book!
(it ain't going anywhere, but there's no tellin' where one'll point you)