SL Memoirs

Global Cyberspace
25 years from now



It's been a long time.

A girl walks down a quiet virtual city street, raindrops falling from the grey sky. She doesn't have a lot in her pocket; in forty five minutes she is due to meet a potential client at this small cafe'. A little cash would be a good thing.

Being early is generally smart. She stakes out the turf, gets comfortable and makes it her own. Never know with people, or business. It doesn't seem like any shills or setups... but one can never be too careful. While she waits, she sees the usual. Gift cards at the counter, terminals that access all sorts of domestic networks, trinkets, cards, news... and a rack of books. Books. They still exist here, at least, in any kind of number.

It's the usual fare; self help, expose's on the topics du jour, a few novels. One however, stands out. On the cover: an antiquated image of an ancient avatar, its face cartoonish and a bit too sharply in focus; retro but not retro cool. The effect is a sort of gravid honesty. Its title: "My SL Memoirs."


* * * * *


That book has your name on it.

Inside, chapter by chapter, is the unedited, honest, fully detailed story of your virtual life.

And it is more than that. In the background is also your real life, not emphatic or accented, but just as clear.

And the book covers a lot of time. From your beginnings, through the present time, into the next few years, and then on into the great events (and your presence as witness and participant) that come in the next two decades.

Names are named. Nothing is held back. You might think you would never do this, back in 2010, but apparently for whatever reason in 2035... you did.


* * * * *


Is it a good read?

What are the recurring themes? Love? Business? Adventure?

How do the chapters unfold ~ what might some chapter names be?

Is anyone going to be terribly angry (or happy?) that you wrote this?

What happens to you, in the end?

What key events ~ moments that could have changed everything ~ were there?

Did you make a difference in anyone else's life, or is it all about you?

Would you do it all again, if you could be magically transported back to 2010?

What would you say to the person who picks up your book and reads it, in the epilogue?

* * * * *

Something to think about.

One further thing, for the daring.

The girl, the cafe', the person she is meeting and yes, even the grey day itself are all resultant from your past actions, either directly or indirectly. Who are they, with respect to you, and how did they come about?

So I am...a deity? That, or decades-long dictator of China or the US or perhaps India...

Granted, 'humans affect the climate' is pretty well-accepted science. But if we posit ONE individual's actions resulting in A Grey Day, then that individual must have been pretty darned powerful for many years.



(Not that this is what you're after in this thread...it just struck me, is all. ^_^)

Virtual grey day. Virtual.

Days are gray sometimes, in RL and SL. I don't much concern myself with the fact that this day, is gray. In fact, I made it gray, myself. As I have environment control, I could have made it sunny, midday, spring. I just chose gray because that's how I'm feeling.

This cafe looks like it's in a terminal of some kind, an old fashioned Greyhound bus terminal. I don't like it. I type a fast set of code, and my environment changes to an upscale hotel lobby, with comfortable chairs and a wall size tv, a small table with a drink beside me, that I ordered along with the site change, direct from my Paypal account. That's better. I'm comfy now, in my warm sweater and leggings with my sculpty boots. My flexi, but prim free hair floats gently around my shoulders, not causing any changes at all in the virtual space, it just 'is', because I imagined it so.

I think about the book I saw in the cafe, surprised that it's still around in virtual, anywhere. My avatar picture on the front hasn't changed much, actually, perhaps a little less cartoony, but 'ancient'? The opinion of another old timer like myself, I brush it off. I like how I looked back then, the surprised honesty in my face. I'm still surprised at many things, mostly, that I'm still here. I think of the words in the book. Remember how I tried, 25 years ago, to make virtual easier for someone else to navigate, based on my own small understanding. Remembering those who also helped. So many had similar goals. There was frustration around the limitations, from the talented content creators and scripters, the constant barrage of sabotage attempts by griefers, now mostly squelched by years of litigation in RL and harsh RL punishments, as virtual gained credibility and momentum.

Ah. I come out of my reverie, to find my appointment is arriving. I smile softly as I see my old friend, her blond 70's style flip and round eyes pretty much as I remember, come through the revolving door. I click 'Stand Up' (some things don't chang) and my finger hovers over my hug hud as she glides toward me, slightly off the floor, just like we now move in RL. "Ah, there you are, she says. Come, old friend. We've work to do..." We walk out of the manufactured room I created, and it disappears behind us. A field of her creation opens in front of us, as she clicks her 'Share visual' button, and we begin the trek across it, to the masses who still need us, still need help, still are starry eyed. An angel floats overhead, the words 'Angel Linden' visible to those he chooses to make it visible to. I type in another fast set of code, and make myself visible to 'everyone', which is now my choice, and move towards my destiny, my early years book remaining dusty and forgotten, in a now disappeared cafe in a terminal from the past. I am still needed. I still have chances, and hopes and dreams for this world. I feel the excitement rise, and move faster, gliding across the tops of the flowers in the field. So many still to come, so much to teach, and still to learn. As I smile in RL, my avatar smiles along, my facial muscles and nerves connected by a headset, to her. 25 years later.......whoo, what a ride!

Treasure Ballinger

::embarrassed smiley::


I kind of enjoyed visualizing having spent the years between now and 2035 as Dictator of a Major Nation, though.

Quantum bit shit! Another gray day. Bloody bandwidth rationing. I sure wish the virtual wars were just an implanted memory so I could purge them. PTVS syndrome my ass. International corporate Griefing?. I don’t care what you call it. Lives are still wrecked. A broken mind can take decades to recover. Taking the plunge to total immersion is not for the week minded. Well enough of that. I have to have my wits about me. My "Guest" could be coming in hot. Let me see. Nothing too obvious. I’ll go with my standard 6 pack split presence with duel sim reconstruction mode on overlap. I’ll skip the instant re-rez option. No harm at this point in him thinking he killed me if that’s his first move. Better lockout any exits. I don’t want to have to chase his ass halfway across the inter-grids. If only there was a safe way to unplug. One that didn’t kill you from sensory deprivation. They say there are some minds that can taste it, put it down, and still walk away. I think it’s a myth. I’ve never met a former fiber head. Well, until the giant corporate merge minds can come up with another plan, this is all there is. Capture, Contain, and Neutralize. Harvest if possible. Temporal Distortion perimeter rez complete. With any luck, he’ll just think he's just having a slow teleport. I don’t see anything on my incoming. He must be late. “No I’m not”.

I have never grown old. As the years pass here my memories cross borders like opportunities scattered in a wasted life.

Here's the thing. In SL, every day, you *can* start again, unlike RL. You can savor it all again, exactly as you did it before, or you can ... change.

So many societies on this planet impede change. Societal change, and individual change. And data mining will make change more difficult--- you will never escape your early choices.

I have been mulling this over since posting to M about preserving fantasy in SL ... it is not actually fantasy that makes SL so precious to me. It is the potential for re-invention.

Any day, you can start over and try to become that person you did not become in RL, whether through circumstance or your own choices, it does not matter. Both are within your control in SL.

It is not one second life. It is a myriad of lives ... until you live the one you love, and then set about discovering how to bring that into your real life.

It is rapid prototyping of life.

*nods*

.

Amen

By then a lot of people will have grown up with one or more virtual identities from when they were toddlers. I'd guess many of us in SL have only acquired virtual identities in our adulthood. Apart from a few 'noms-de-plume' on various internet forums, I never had a virtual presence until I joined SL just over 3 years ago.

No. Just texture lag - even after all those years.

Mutter grumble, this is what I get for taking the first ticket into the Singularity, but what the hell, if I hadn't uploaded I'd probably be dead by now anyway. Now where did I put that damn "reading" plugin again...

The girl buys a half-hour read of "My SL Memoirs" and settles herself in the cafe with a hot coffee and chocolate croissant; in RL she curls up on her sofa and savors the tastes and smells piped into her brain via remote console.

The walls around her dissolve as she is drawn into the Memoirs. The periphery of her vision retains the cafe setting while the Memoirs coalesce into the center.

She sees through the eyes of an antiquated avatar... first visualized as a vaguely Asian female, then a brown-skinned Indian-Asian, and then to a distinctly "non-human" skinned humanoid, mostly blue but sometimes zebra-striped or fey-grey. Eventually the humanoid gives way to mammalian or avian forms, and sometimes strays into ethereal cloud-like forms altogether.

Throughout, there are friends. Some are merely acquaintances, while others have shared the heartbreaks and hearthopes of a human life. Possibly the "named names" have continued to exist in Second Life. More probably, they have moved on to different plateaus. In all, it's a book that could hurt some very few people; more generally, it's a book of adventures. The authoress has told, with a wry smile, her tales of woe and of danger, and certainly of sheer stupidity and egocentricity. One chapter is titled "Of Ramen and Cheap Wine - The Search for a House" in which all is sacrificed to achieve the American Dream, including existence in Second Life.

Unfortunately, the girl has only bought a half-hour share of the book, and must return it to the stand at the end of her time. With a flick of her wrist, the book vanishes, the coffee refills itself, and fresh croissants appear on the table. An elderly woman appears at the entrance of the cafe. Her gaze is strong, her hair white and fashionably bobbed. She is dressed in clothes popular some time ago but comfortable for a woman of her age. The girl jumps up and runs to the woman, hugging her gently. "Grandmama, your book is out! You look so... old fashioned!"

Given how much I have done that I would never have predicted 25 years ago, I would not be surprised.

/me checks to see if the sky is the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

Blue?

Yeah, I know. Technology has moved on and changed the sense of that line now, leading to it being parodied at least once. It's probably still my favourite opening line in SF.

This generation will not know what you're talking about when you mention ghosting, static, and scrambling. (^_^)y

We saw another bunch of them today. The stray city dwellers, who decide to come out into the sunlight every so often. They get totally panicked when all their gadgets and goggles stop working. The can't find their own asses without something plugged into it.

I usually chuckle when they show up at my door, terrified of the dogs. I hear no one has anything bigger than a poddle or a pug down there anymore. The dogs hear the whine of their little electric cars a mile away and are always at the gate to greet them. Their first question is where is the nearest Starbuck's so the con connect back up and reset their devices. I invite them in and ask them if they want some real coffee, and I'll help them find their way to where they are going.

It's fun watching their eyes widen at the space I have here, and they blink at the bright sunlight.They also seem curious about my clothing, the styles materials and colors are a change from the drab lookalike Logowear they have on.The men in the group see my skirt and smile while the women just look at me blankly.

They tell me they have heard of places like this, but didn't think they were real, and wanted to see for themselves. They sheepishly apologize if they are staring, and I just laugh. I tell them about when i was their age, in this very place were people called The Amish, who also lived in away apart from the norm, and we would come from the city to see them and stare and shake our heads. That was of course before the events of 2012.

To be continued?

I hope so! I love this thread!

It has already been done by a friend of mine, for the online personas we constructed and inhabited more than 25 years ago now. The current generation have largely ignored his book, perhaps because they don't want to face up to how much of their lives they waste on line, perpetually updating one another on trivial nonsenses.

How long before kids are going "what do they mean by a channel?"

OK, you asked for it.........


One of the girls nods at the mention of 2012." I remember reading about that. It was when the Government created these places for people who couldn't adapt to life in the cities , isn't it?"
10 years ago that would have made me go off on an angry tirade, but now I just chuckle.

"Are they still teaching that rubbish?" I shouldn't be surprised as all they see is the ubiquitous "America Today" feeds, be it on Television or on the Net. Nothing but approved Government/Corporate dreck there.

As the coffee finishes brewing, I pour it into mugs and hand them to my guests.
"I'm sorry it took so long, I know you are used to getting things instantly." I smile mischieviously at their puzzled looks.

"I have some biscuits that I've just finished baking, would you like some?" Without waiting for an answer I get them from the oven and put them on a tray in front of them. One girl looks around the kitchen and smiles. "I remeber my Grandmother having a kitchen like this. Thats a gas oven, isn't it?" I nod. "Gas is the only way to cook. You can regulate the temperature and go from one extreme to the other very quickly. Of course you need the right tools." I point to the stainless steel pots and pans hanging on the rack, noting that they are older than any of my visitors.

One of the boys pipes up, he is barely out of his teens and until now has been absorbed with something on his Hand Held. "Doesn't cooking that way take so long? When I'm hungry I just put something in the micro and it's done in a minute. I couldn't stand to have to wait so long. doesn't it sometimes take hours to cook dinner?"

"Yes it does. In fact, I had some friends over this past Thanksgiving and it took about 8 hours to cook the turkey, it was huge." I wait for second to get their expected look of shock and move on. "Are any of you into art?" The girl nods. "Cooking is like painting a picture. The ingredients are like paints, the cookware are your brushes. The ingredients are mixed and added and blended until you get the final result." The girl smiles."I just do it on the computer and print it out. I guess that's the equivalent to using a microwave." We both laugh.

"OK, so let's see if we can get you back on track. Where are you going?"

"Philadelphia"

I nod. "You should have just taken the Liberty Highway. You could have been there in less than an hour." The Liberty Highway is what was once called Interstate 95, the main route between New York and Philadelphia. In 2010 the government sold off most of the Interstates to private companies as they just couldn't afford to maintain them. These highways became fast, safe , computer controlled corridors between the cities. They also became expensive as Hell. Once in corporate hands, the tolls were increased to astronomical rates. Also the cities themselves placed new fees to enter if you weren't a resident.

"We could have gone that way, but we didn't want to use up our travel credits. Most of us get a certain amount of free travel on the tollways as part of our employee benefits, but it is pretty much just enough to cover commuting to and from work", the girl said. "Besides, we really wanted to see a place like this." She smiled sheepishly.

I gave her a reassuring touch on the shoulder. "So what are you going to do in Philadelphia?"

She looked at me excitedly. "We're going to meet some friends, for the very first time!" Her companions all smiled in agreement. "I'm not sure I follow you", I said . "If you haven't met them yet, how can they be your friends?" it was now her turn to chuckle. "Well, we've met them, sort of." She looked around the room, and walked over to the desk where my old desktop computer sat, one of the last desktops made. She smiled at what she undoubtedly saw as another quaint antique and said , "We met in the Virtual. We've been frinds for years, but are just now going to meet in the Outworld. I guess it's hard to explain to someone like you, you probably don't know anything about Virtual Reality, do you?"

Now it was my turn, and I laughed, loud and long.

You're an incredible writer.