Has anyone read "Plowing the Dark"?

Has anyone read "Plowing the Dark" by Richard Powers? If you have, what do you think about the story in relation to Second Life? Btw, Richard Powers is one of my favorite authors.

I read it at about the time we were doing the earliest design work on SL!

I, too, think it is an important and little known exploration of virtual spaces, esp in their relation to human emotion.

Adie, the artist in "Plowing the Dark" (I'm re-reading it), comes to that virtual world with no computer skills and no interest in technology. So she turns it into an art project, where the technology is a means to end. I wonder how many people in SL came to the game with no love of computers, no interest in the traditional game-playing aspects? If you wander around in SL, it's obvious that a lot of the players are primarily interested in creating art, whether it's architecture, landscaping, sculpture, fashion, etc. Are they computer geeks who have finally found a way to tap their right brains?

Yes, PTD does engage the right brain to a much greater extent than other fiction on the topic, as does SL.

I've gotta do an 'are you left handed?' thread - I'm curious.

This game (SL) keeps reminding me of books I've read in the distant past. I couldn't put my finger on one until just the other day: Anyone read "Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland? "Plowing the Dark" and "Microserfs" is how I'd like to imagine life is/was like at Linden Lab, only maybe without all the drama.