Could a world government ever work in SL ?

The sheer impossibility of establishing any form of "government" is Second Life beggars the imagination. Anyone who assumes they are in possession of any kind of "sovereign" content in regards to their SL territory is severely mistaken. Recent actions in IP law are trending toward the only "government" authorities being the governments in which the sims and hardware are based. When servers begin to spread to other geographic areas, then the question merely becomes one of jurisdiction. And if RL law comes to be applied to SL...then any pipe dream about establishing an autonomous SL "government" will finally be put to bed...for good.

My thoughts exactly

We cant even get people on the forums to get along ...

It's probably not realistic. Though, it would be nice if there was some judge system set up to arbitrate disputes between residents (besides AR)..... such as the use of megaprims to encroach on others' property or using particles to annoy neighbors/cause lag. I'm sure there's other issues, but those are the ones I have personally run into.

It would work...it wouldn't be as 'fun', which is the entire point...but it certainly would shake things up a bit.

Just like in RL--if you step out your door, strive for knowledge, a skill-set, and a job...you'll get it--Second Life is no exception.

Even if we could have a SL-wide government.

Why would we want one?

I think someone needs to send a hard copy of this entire thread to Philip.

Now is the time for me to start my campaign for the indendence of Jeogeot (the Southern Continent) and renaming it Wootonia

Most goverments are formed by war and the elimination of any who oppose. I don't see how that would be accomplished in SL, without the power to delete accounts. Only LL could establish a government.

I tend to be the type of person who likes structure so I love the idea of a resident government in SL. Even more so I'd love to see it tried as a social experiment. I am certain it could never work, though. The vast majority of SL residents seem to prefer anarchy and while I like structure the anarchy is part of its charm.

The primary reason it would never work is because it's not needed for infrastructure. It's primary purpose would be for policing and I don't think that's something most of us want.

What would the Government DO?

if i created a virtual strawman, would it be real??

p.s. lay offa phillip, he's just a good guy with a crazy idea that we all love and everybody's crabbin' him all the time about it.


p.p.s. travis: <<brain popped>>

p.p.p.s landin: spot-on!!

p.p.p.s. hiro gets my vote.











p.p.p.p.s. yesterday is history. what're you leaving behind??

Build roads, provide places to bring newbies up to speed, make major policy decisions, enforce the big laws, provide infrastructure changes to let the world grow, etc...

I would hate a resident government. The only government I want to have to answer to is LL.

coco

Egon, you can be the Lord High Anarch of the Metaverse and I will rely on you to deal with all those aliens from the outer planet "Reallife" when they try to impose their laws on our world and our imagination. Bless!

And how would it pay for this?

"I'm the Taxman. yeah , I'm the Tax Maaaaaannnn"

phew... break any of those subjects down, and you still have huge subjects. there's libraries of books just on 'how to build a road' lol...

p.s. and all the rest kinda has to be figured out 'on the fly' lol (new subjects not entirely tackled before in such an environment as this...)

p.p.s. darn, my extra post-scripts didn't make it in!! once again...

p.p.p.s. travis make my brain go <<pop>>

p.p.p.p.s. lindal gets my vote.

p.p.p.p.p.s. and lay offa phillip huh?? he's just a good guy with a crazy idea that we all obviously love, and constantly getting sh*t for it.

This wasn't my idea, it was his. Apparently not very popular or realistic. Whenever the server code goes open source, this will be a moot point altogether. I finally asked this question because I'm always puzzled when anyone at LL mentions any kind of governance in world. A sim owner exercises governance alright. Beyond that, it would be like herding wild cats.

last i knew much about it, that's why i didn't much go for libertarianism - 'privatize everything' - well who's gonna pave the roads?? (plus it's just one syllable too damn many for a u.s. party lol

the 'legalize pot' ish is such an obvious carrot-on-stick. 'heeere, hippie, tsk tsk, c'mere'

Build roads, set up a police force (primarily for the griefers at Orientation and Help Islands but elsewhere also), adopt policy rules (such as ensuring a minimum length of stay on Orientation Island, ad farming, bots, guard against fraud, etc.), set up zoning as well as no zoning areas if that's what the public wants. Those are the best things I can think of so far, I'm sure there's plenty more that could come to mind. Some of them would require LL's assistance to enact.

As for how to make it work? Taxes would be required, of course.

As I alluded to before, I don't think it would work and probably wouldn't want it myself but I would love to see it done for awhile as an experiment. I'd love to see one set up on a few Sims and would participate to see how it goes.

I think you would have to find some way to tax "lag" Brenda. A "Lag Quota" set in some way perhaps?

A Government would obviously need Regulatory Systems too - an opportunity to regulate banking here, amongst other things...hmmmm. SL getting more and more like RL

Well thats exactly it.

So I'd have to pay taxes so someone else could have roads?

I don't need to roads for my SL survival.

I don't need a SL army to defend me from Sims Online. At this point I see only fictitious "needs" that would be addressed by taking from the liberty of all.

kewl actually, i like that. it's sorta like 'it's obvious; you just gotta see it, see?' a common problem with 'politics' anyways, everywhere.

i have a good friend who's new to sl by way of me talking about it all the time, lol but i find it disconcerting his assertations that, as he contemplates the virtual world, that he constantly comes up with the line something along the lines of like, 'well there's the chinese SL, there's gonna be other competing SLs... there's gonna be a WAR!!

lol and i can only reply, 'y'know... please don't drag in too many real-world paradigms into this, lol...'

but y'know - taking the two together - if in your home, your landplot, your island(s), if you're 'king', and well, say like me you're making stuff, but someone in another 'kingdom' (protected in some way outside of overarching, 'global grid' laws) is taking and profiting your work, well... i guess that's called 'blood for oil' around here. :\

despots operate from an innate self-interest, deep down, and have little concept of the 'sacrifice' that one's own life, in the end, must conclude with.

ooo, i need another drink.

Tier.