SL/Virtual Reality Morality/Ethics... any group working on these?

Bows to all,

I'm interested in any present work going on regarding defining specific sets of Moralities/Ethics for SL and/or Virtual Realities.

Base Concept:
Due to the fact that SL and other Virtual Realities have such considerably different boundary conditions from Real Life... or 1st Life as i prefer to term our first reality, the social codes and agreements must also be different, it seems to me. I'm interested in reading any present works or drafts on the subject.

A prime example of this is the most primary ethical axiom of 1st life, thou shalt not kill, is ridiculous in SL in most circumstances. This might be replaced in SL with 'Thou shalt knowingly cause emotional harm.' (as emotional harm is the most difficult aspect of SL in many cases).

Morality and Ethics in the most general and helpful sense does not restrict any individual choices, it just creates guidelines and understandings to restrict the capacity to do harm to others and to be hurtful (without the participant's direct permission to be harmed, such as in BDSM).

Such a construct would not meant to overlay traditional Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or any other religious dogmas on top of SL. It is not meant to restrict D/s, BDSM, Gor, gay or any other lifestyles.

It is also not the same as TOS for SL or any other company.

Virtual Moralities/Ethics would ideally recognize the significantly different natural laws of SL and other Virtual Worlds, and to begin to create a common social agreement as to the best and most productive ways to live together.



Can anyone help me with source material or working groups?

TIA!!

The same with RL, I really am not interested in having someone elses morality or ethics impressed upon my own existance. I'll leave it at that.

Plus I find that in general, the Real Life rules of the road, with a little adaption work well enough for me.

I think it's a good project, Pat. If you find or form a working group, let me know, please.

I know there's a Universal Unitarian group in SL; whether they discuss morality/ethics in SL, I don't know, but I bet it's come up. You might check with them and also the many many religious groups here. I know that you said that



but many of the religious groups DO discuss morality in SL, and I bet that many of them do apply their religious values to SL. *shrug* It's worth a look.

I think your basic premise is wrong.

This isn't a matter of different ethics. It's a matter of language overloading. Murder is wrong, period. But in SL, we use "kill" or "murder" as shorthand for "roleplaying a murder scene" or "killing someone in a shooter game", which is a different meaning of those words. The prohibition against causing emotional harm is the same in both RL and SL.

I couldn't agree more !

OH MY GOD!!!

UNITARIANS!

Think I agree. It's still actual human beings at the keyboards running all the avatars, soe human morality/ethics apply, and so do all the debates and arguments about them since the dawn of time. What will differ substantially is customs and mores, because circumstances in SL are so different from RL, but that is a different question. For example, you drive on the left in England and Japan, and on the right in the US and Canada, but that is a matter of custom; there is no moral or ethical question about driving on the left or on the right, only on honoring social conventions and agreements in general. Maybe redefine your project?

You might try using the new Search to look up groups with the search term "ethics" and similar words.

There's a "The Philosophy Club" and "the Ethics Group", for the word ethics, for example.

Ty for the input!

Not a project per se, but a request for information on other groups or individuals actively working on defining morality/ethics.

Information request only!!

To clarify, driving on one side of the road or the other IS a matter of custom, not of ethics/morality. Defining murder is a matter of semantics. And once murder is defined as killing a living human being (not a screen representation), that becomes a matter of ethics/morality.

The interesting question is, since as pointed out above, the conditions of virtual realities are so different, what is morally/ethically right and wrong in them?

Can communities of diverse individuals exist without a basic agreement of what behavior is right and wrong, and a basic social contract? Sure. I would argue that such communities are not as productive for business or leisure, nor as safe emotionally or physically. I would also argue that they are not as much fun for the members of the community.

Morality and Ethics are basic definitions of what is right and wrong in any large group. These definitions will differ substantially in VRs than in RL. Monogamy, families, multiple alts, relationships, the interaction between 1st and 2nd lives, teleportation, sexual interaction... all of these aspects are interesting and very different because of the radically different boundry conditions of VRs.

Social contracts are also basic to any large community (see Thomas Hobbes (1651), John Locke (1689), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762). SL and other VRs are communities. To my knowledge, basic social contracts have not been defined for VRs generally. TOS are not the same thing.

A good community, in 1st life or 2nd life has a basic agreement of right and wrong and are supportive and safe... emotionally and physically (... unless you voluntarily go into areas that are advertised as not safe in specific ways). SL has done a good job in many of these issues. Others could be improved. Read some of the posts on this forum if you have any doubts as to our capacity to improve social interactions in VRs.

Given that virtual realities are here to stay, and that they differ substantially from other sorts of realities, I'm curious about what sort of organizational and social adjustments will be made as we think through these issues together. How do we define morality, ethics and Social Contracts for VRs? An interesting question.

Just looking for information at this point... Ty to all for your replies, tho....

Honor to all.... Bows....

ty SuezanneC... nice stuff there.....

There are some key differences between VRs like SL and RL interactions. The main one is that you can carry out all sorts of acts, apparently without any consequences.

For example, you could set up a bank and fleece people for a few hundred thousand $US dollars. You can enter into monogamous or polygamous relationships and when things get difficult emotionally (or just boring, inconvenient or seemingly valueless) you can just switch your existence to an alt, mute or ban people, or just not log in. Every conversation is potentially a bit twisted, as you have no visual cues as to whether someone is lying through their teeth or not. You can of course do other things like fly, drive a big car and have a mansion, run a business, or whatever else provides an ego boost, that might not be harmful to others, but perhaps harmful to yourself.

There is (ultimately) no social contract in a VR. Some people might apply some semblance of morality and maybe even ethics in what they do, but there is no real pressure to do so.

Excuse me?

Outstanding examples, sir.

True, but a general social agreement would result in a recognition of negative behaviors and social pressures to conform to productive VR ethical/moral standards. Also, SL or other VR TOSs might be modified based on such discussions. These companies are the equivalent of government entities in 1st life communities.

Without productive discussion and agreement to specific right/wrong, social contract and/or best practice, there can be no movement toward a more stable/safe/enjoyable/productive VR environment. My opinion, fwiw....

ty for your response... honor to you... bows....

An obscure Simpson's reference.

Actually, now that you mention it I think I recall it. I'll add being less sensitive to my list of new years resolutions.

Who would define these standards? How would they be enforced? Part of the appeal of Virtual Worlds is the freedom from the overy intrusive governmental entities, the ability to live outside of Real life categorizations. where people should act decently toward each other, it is something you should do as a matter of course, and not becuase you are under threat of some penalty. There is enough of that in real life. It is an interesting idea for discussion, but at least initially viewed by me, I wouldn't want any part of it. I think I know how to behave.But it should make for an interesting debate. /makes popcorn.

Yeah! What she said!

Do as you would be done by - works as an axiom for life, second or real, for me.

Those are the best kind

What makes you think this doesn't happen in RL?

It does. At a great risk for penalty, because there is an enforceable system in place. You could, in theory create a code of behavior, but how can you enforce it? You don't know who you actually are interacting with here. Someone wrongs you, who are you going to go after? Even if LL were to take interest, what would they do? Ban the Avatar? They reappear as an alt. Do we do as some have shown a want, and make our characters a true representation of ourselves, with all identity readily visible, so we know who wronged us? You can, but don't expect me to hang around, I don't need a RL substitute here. Part of the lofty ideals of a place like this is supposed to be a raising up of behavior, an enlightenment. Sure, some do behave at the lowest level here, but if we are going to dumb it down to that common denominator, then again SL become RLv2,not a place a lot of us are interested in. It's great to want to make us all behave better, but I don't see how you can make us do it.

I'm sure people can write their own essays and books in SL on morals or ethics, but they would NEVER get them enforced in any meaningful way. Unless there was potential for legal challege that LL would have to spend a significant amount of money defending.

This is a good thing to me. I mean, let the religious folks get a say on how we behave in SL, and we're asking for trouble. SL isn't as different from RL as most would like to believe. There will always be fundies trying to ruin everyone elses bliss for there own limited vision of salvation. Give them any meaningful power or voice here and this place would go down the tubes.