Utopia in SL: our world, our imagination, our rules...

I want to invite you to join the discussion of how we can create an utopia in SL, if you were in charge of running SL, so we can build this world for the people, by the people and of the people.

* How do you see your utopic world be like?
* What are the rules for your SL, if any rules at all?
* What are the standards of behavior that will foster the longevity of existence in SL?
* How do you create a community that will provide tolerance of each other's activity without infringing on other's rights and enjoyment in SL?
* How will you best communicate your concerns to your fellow citizens if conflicts arise?
* How will you promote cooperation and collaboration in building your community that ensures our self-determination for co-existence?
* How do you balance the rights of the majority with the rights of the minority?
* How do we co-exist without ostracizing any other group of people even though we disagree with them?
* How do you promote civilized behavior so that dictatorship will not overrun this place?
* How do you build this utopia if you have as many sims as you like to build a universe?
* What would this universe be like?
* What kind of continent or planet would it be?
* What is your dream world?
* What is your dream community?
* What is your dream economy?
* Do we need zoning or no zoning?
* Do we need country or no country?
* Do we need to identify ourselves or do you prefer anonymity?
* How do we separate the influence of RL from contaminating SL?

You comments are greatly appreciated.

Write your reply on the back of a postcard in ten words or less . . .

Pep ( . . . and you might win a two week holiday in the sun - flights, meals and accommodation excluded)

ruling with Fear as mah tool

here she comes!!!get out of her way we may cause lag for her!!!
Remember the last time!! just run your wasting your breath on words and losing distance!!
Flee like the wind!!!

ahh yes fear... Mah Utopia

In Xanadu did Avah Tah
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alpha'd sculpted rivers, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a windlight sea.
So twice five SIMs of mature ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with PG SIMs,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the prims,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill thwarted a puritan cover !
A savage place ! as furry and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless AR seething,
As if this earth in sculpted pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift particle burst
Huge d*cks vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the griefer's flail :
And 'mid these dancing *ocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a laggy motion
Through wood and dale the sculpty river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a 7Seas ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Avah heard from far
Residential voices prophesying war !
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was a Gorean maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Ursula.
Could I revive within me
Her raunchy Bilingual song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
The Lag is evil, remove your hair !
Verify your account thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For we on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Yes, free limo, plane ticket to adult sims and an orgy party of your life!

Brava eku, brava!

There was actually a sim called Utopia for a while, right next to Damania, which is one of my favourite SL builds. Utiopia was built by the same person and was very imaginitive but very, very pink!

Simple, 3 words. Non Aggression Principle

*applauds Eku*

that poem (the original) was one of the first things i thought of when i started SL
no matter how we bitch and complain.. our own world as we make it .. can be absolutely anything we want.

even now i am still awed at ppls imaginations put into prims.

Seconded -

You're missing one critical point here, however... How to migrate people from the current mixed-use model to this Utopia. If we were building a whole new grid and starting fresh, then starting from day one as all accounts must be identified and age verified, and all content zoned by continent, and flags for further zoning based on activity, such as parcel flags for damage enabled or combat/violence allowed zones, would be easy to do. But rezoning the mainland now is like unmixing a well mixed bag of sugar and salt, and trying to get two pure bags, one only sugar, one only salt. With forced moves being like penealzing the sharecropper for being unable to sort out the two bags, when it was the landlord who mixed them in the first place!

Remember, the translation of the word "Utopia" into English is "Nowhere".

Thirded...

Wonderful, eku!

My question for the OP: you seem to imply that SL should be a single Utopia, with one set of rules. Can it not be many, many Utopias, each with different rules?

I am glad to see you asking the question, though. This is the sort of world-making thought that used to permeate SL, and is daily threatened by freebie hunts and real estate gambits.

Maybe the Cartel should put together a tour of Utopias - sims where people are attempting to create a better world, one that is not an extension of the real world, but true alternative realities. I wish LL would sponsor an award for Utopias! Prolly never will, though, because the "Adult" community is one of the most active in this area - witness some of the Gorean sims, and actually the quite lovely (BDSM) Forum build, if it's still around.
.

Humans are not meant to live in a Utopia...blame Eve.

I am woman! guilty!!

oh wait, I shed the guilt, sometimes I forget

In SL we are residents of a world where we have no rights and no influence on the rules of that world.

Some think SL is just a game. I hope they are right.

Utopia? Um.. ok..

First step. Put shadows, texture baking, etc, into the graphics engine. Make a proper material setting for clothes, so that bump maps and material texturing can be automated, too. Make prim alignment much easier, and texture alignment automated. Make the shape editor display suggested ranges and support morph anchors that affect all the settings equally. Hard, tedious work isn't something that belongs in a utopia.

Oh, wait. There's still the talent problem. Really wanting to doing something and being told that you never willl, because your DNA is wrong, doesn't belong in a utopia either. So, hmm. Automated creation, perhaps, or maybe just randomness? Neither of those are very satisfactory. What's really needed is a neural interface, so that if you want to leave in a beautiful mansion, you can just specify that. Whenever anyone is looking at your build, the neural interface will activate, and electrochemically force the viewer's brain to interpret what they're seeing as a beautiful mansion, even if it's actually just a plywood box. That'll probably really freak out those users, but that's ok - the same interface can suppress that.

Next step is to abolish the L$ economy. Having to budget, settle, and do without doesn't belong in a utopia. Since we already abolished all the tedious work and talent restrictions, this shouldn't be a problem at all. It does mean we have to allow people unlimited land, but technically that's already possible - unlimited prims and avatars is the challenge, but if we can do unlimited inventory, why not?

Now, we still have people. People are awkward, they're annoying. Having to fit in, adapt, give up parts of ourselves, and tolerate aren't part of a utopia. So all interaction would need to be with NPCs. But the NPCs can use the inputs of real players as part of their calculations, so you aren't entirely alone. You'll never meet Yumi Murakami, but you might meet Miyu Kurayami, who acts just like her, except when you wouldn't enjoy it.

Then we might have utopia.. but that doesn't sound like a good thing.

(Though, I'd be so totally keen if they did that first paragraph.)

Acutally, I blame Adam, but then he was PW'd.

Wait... had anyone say we have to model utopia after LL?

This is the organic self-evolving model that I want to see what we all come up with, if we were to create this universe once again, with no limitation whatsoever.

It is more like the private island model where people create their own rules without LL getting involved. But it wasn't an ideal model because it is then dictated by the estate owner.

Mixed use is actually a good thing to have. It creates the diversity, and you run into lots of things that you never encounter otherwise. That is culture.

Zoning is totally a US phenomenon, that is why there is no culture in any American city. If you go to any city in Europe, in Asia, in South America, you will see vibrant mixed used city center where all the cultural phenomenon strive, because it is mixed use. You see none of that in the US. It is so sterilized.

What US cities have you been visiting? They can hardly be called sterile. I can think of a dozen neighborhoods where you will find "culture" as you call it. Zoning is prevalent to a degree in the suburbs, but even then it is not as rigid as some make it out to be.

Minds far better than mine have attempted Utopian societies for millennia and failed. What hope do I have of knowing how to create one?

However I have become interested in a RL venture called seasteading from an organization that wants to build sovereign platform cities that float in international waters so they can experiment with different forms of government and use hemp or whatever:

http://www.seasteading.org/

I have kicked around approaching them with the idea of an SL presence, maybe building a model of what they have in mind on an ocean sim. That would be fun.

Do I seriously think the idea will work? No. As soon as you start talking about being sovereign, people start shooting at you. I still find the idea intriguing.

(Yeah, I know I'm probably on some secret government list now.)

Eku, I'm not sue whether to applaud you for paraphrasing, or despise you for raping, Coleridge.... but +1 for actually having read him =)

/me applauds

Great stuff! This is going to be one of those SL references that I save forever.

Simple.
Add alcohol.


Really! Sugar is an organic and therefore soluble in alcohol. Add booze, the sugar will dissolve, then filter out the salt. Heat the solution, and the alcohol vaporizes. Voila; two pure substances.

If we apply booze to the Mainland, all the sweet, sugary stuff will dissolve, leaving the Old Salts behind.

I'll take mine as a single-malt scotch, thanks.