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

The original question was whether people might be interested in discussing how Ethics and Morality might be defined in SL.

Most of the replies (not all) basically said "no", and then went on at length to discuss, in detail, ethics and morals in SL.

Therefore, the answer is "Yes".

I was envisioning it more like Animal Farm, myself...

all the residents are equal,

but some more residents are more equal than others.

We can sometimes almost forget it, but in fact SL is a subset of RL, and so most of the moral and ethical considerations we all experience in RL will mostly find their expression in SL too. Most of the rules and other agreements about behavior we evolve in SL will simply be accepted conventions, customs and mores, adopted because they are convenient or helpful.

There is one major exception: The Wages of Disrupting the Grid are SL Death, and the Wrath of Linden shall fall upon thee, and strike thee hip and thigh, yea, verily, even unto thy computer's IP address.

Unless Danielle was referring to the bestiality porn film of the same title. This would accurately describe most of the furry sims.

I heard if you Disrupt the fabric of the RL Universe, God gets a lil peaved too.

Some of you may be interested in this blog entry and the lengthy comments to it:

(Entry entitled "Civilization" http://laurenweyland.blogspot.com/

There is a difference here though; there is evidence that the Lindens actually exist - some people have even seen them.

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!!

I'm a aethiest, but my joke is.... a guy goes to the doctor and says he has a mince pie from the christmas party stuck up him b*m, the doctor grabs a torch and probes the guy, rising a few seconds later and said... I have some cream for that....

we should all behave as morally and ethically in SL as you would in RL. no difference.

Okay, for the aethiests who cant take a religious joke ..

Gravity, the fabric of the Universe Bites back when you F@#K with it.


That work without including robed figures from the ancient near east?

Hi Pat,

You might be interested in the work of Johnny Soraker and Edward Spence at the University of Twente (http://www.utwente.nl/ceptes/research_staff/Soraker/ and http://www.utwente.nl/ceptes/research_staff/spence/). Both are PhD research fellows in the Department of Philosophy working on a VICI project on the Cultural Quality of New Media.

Spence is an Australian (a senior lecturer in moral philosophy and a senior research fellow in Canberra, among other things) whose current area of research for the project is The Cultural Quality of Digital Information. He is co-author of a book titled 'Media, Markets and Morals' to be published later this year.

Soraker is a Norwegian whose research focuses on whether virtual realities can influence our conception of reality and the ethical question of whether virtual realities can change our sense of duty and/or our moral sentiments.

He has an interesting abstract in progress subtitled 'Some Reflections on Virtual Reality in Light of Kant’s Refutation of Idealism'. Check his blog for more information, as well as his reflections on Second Life, where he spends a considerable amount of time by all accounts.

Hello Pat, whilst others have largely expressed what I might have said here, had it not been for Suezanne's re-railing I think your 'lumping' of SL with other Virtual Worlds might be an over generalisation.

SecondLife whilst marketed to us as 'Be what you want to be' it is ultimately what Linden want it to be. Similarly with WoW or any other virtual world. Any virtual world is the property of it's owner, quite differently to the Real World. Whilst WoW has it's own set of rules and instructions with the 'goal' of winning, SecondLife by it's isolation to the physical constraints First Life place upon us is equally isolated. My laws stop at my property border at which point, my neighbours laws take over. For any 'one set' of laws/ethics/morals to exist, Linden must want it to. I strongly believe that if they were to take any steps further than the current TOS and CS cover, they would risk losing customers. SL at present supports an enormous diversity of morals and ethics. For many of us, this is one the biggest attractions. It's not so much a place in which we live, as a place in which we play. As a business, Linden would be wisest to keep SL as diverse as possible and not restrict. There is little incentive for Linden to restrict.

Just my 5 cents as an armchair philosopher

I think the question as to whether SL or other virtual worlds have their own emergent ethical/moral systems hinges on the degree to which people treat them like new and potentially better worlds, or bring their tribal, racial, ethnic, or national affiliations with them from the outside world.

Sorry I don't have any suggestions for the OP, but it's an interesting topic.

all the residents are equal,

but some more residents are more equal than others.

Generally gravity sort of just does it's thing. Pilots fuck with gravity every day and are none the worse for it.

Glad you removed the elderly Jews from your metaphor though atleast; they really weren't helping.