How Real Is SL For You?

Are you telling me that things I see in my mind such as images aren't really real and should be discarded as delusions? What about memories of a real live event? I am confused about what some people see as reality and other see as made up. If I see something, in SL or in RL and remember it, it seems pretty real to me unless I am hallucinating again.

By the way who are you or anyone to tell me what is real in my life? I thought that was my decision to make.

If mental images are not real what are they? Messages from UFOs maybe?

I recall reading once "A hallucination of pain is a painful hallucination."

I guess that means SL is real.

Yep Suezanne the people who try to tell us what is real and how to think need some pills in my opinion.

Well the general view amongst the "sane" people is this:

A photo of a cow isn't a real cow. But it is a real photo.

The cow you see in a field is real. But the cow inside your head is not.

Your memories are real. But the things your memories represent are not.

Also, this is why it's always wise to check with a friend to see if the Jesus sat at the bottom of your bed is real or not. Never take Jesus's word for it!.

In all honesty, what this thread goes to show is not that people are crazy. But that they don't really understand the meaning of the word 'real'.

OK since SL is unreal and never happened I will go to bed and wake up hoping it was all a dream.

Second Life is real. It's a real computer program. The images of people you see on your computer screen are real images. But they're not real people. The people controlling the unreal people in Second Life are real.

Get to bed!

"How Real Is SL For You?" Happily real! but also...unfortunately real.

For a lotta the folks I'm around, the answer is this: SL is as real as it needs to be.

There's a lot we put into it, an a lot we get out of it. Much of it affects our lives outside of SL, and usually in positive, tangible, *real* ways. Happy experiences can translate to being happy IRL, as can experiences with all the other emotions in-world.

The different to me, however, isn't how "real" it is, but is more a question of distance. Of understanding dat you ain't actually a collection of polygons in a prim-based world.

Mari

I've loved, lived and created for Sims (as in "The Sims" for the last 8 years. Although it can be immersive, the only things real about that are the poeple I meet in forums. SL is by comparison a living and evolving universe. We just swap our carbon-based bodies for pixel-based ones for a few hours is all. So I vote "real and fun". It's the human minds behind each avatar who make it so.

Is a conversation with a friend on the telephone not real? A letter to a pen friend? I just happen to be doing it dressed a little strangely sometimes, and with much better hair.

<--- This is me right now.

I just happen to have no arms and legs.

Looking back in history... first came the written word as an extention to how we could interact with more people than simply those around us... then came the artist that would paint a picture of a likeness that could be send to a potential suitor... transport routes improved and openned up the possibility or travel to meet and experinence new worlds and people.. then came the telephone to add to the experience... then came the internet chat and emails... this developed into VR worlds.. each bring us closer to the event horizon of being able to transmit ourselves to others in anyway we see fit.

The one thing that VR does, is to create an illusion so vast, it can fool anyones senses. A/S/L is banned, so now you can be whatever age you like, gender and wherever you like without actually telling a lie in open chat or in a profile. However this is perfectly accepted as it's already known that none of us actually have wings, have true Goth skins, look like a furry, are 9 feet tall, own huge houses with helicopters on the roof and boats in the bay (if so, what the hell you doing in SL?).

VR is esentially escapism or a way of portraying, who we would like to be, and in some cases, what we would like to be. SL can be seen as a somewhat passive version of WOW or other similar style games, whereby they all intend to create factions/communities but with minimal empahsis on the warring style. The danger is applying RL standards to VR games. Actions without recourse, is a prominant syndrome of VR. The words 'Keep it real' do not apply.

That's a good way of looking at it.

The underlying issue is not whether it's "real." The underlying issue is what meaning individuals attach to their use of it. The circumstances of Second Life have different emotional impacts on different people depending on what meaning they attach to it and what they expect from it.

The only thing "real" about any feeling is the neurological activity in our brains. For better or worse, Second Life stimulates neurological activity in our brains.

That sums up my feelings. Well are here for different things. What we put in and what we get out is up to us.

An interesting discussion, albeit one that seems to always come up around the pub at 2 am SLT or so....

One thing I have always been a bit bemused by is that whenever there is a popular media article on SL, there is a tone of increduality that people would pay "real" money for something that is "not real". Why, people will spend 450 Linden dollars (almost the cost of a real Chai Tea Latte) on a pair of virtual shoes!

But we think nothing of spend much larger sums of money on things that might be "real" but are equally non-purposeful. Is there really a difference between buying a fancy pair of shoes in SL and buying new pair of shoes in RL when one already has a perfectly servicable pair of tennis shoes? Either way, it has more to do with looking nice than keeping one's feet warm. People perceive each other via their avatars--to my mind there is little difference between unnecessary clothing in RL and (all) clothing in SL. It influences how others see you, and perhaps you see yourself (don't we feel differently when we toss on the little black dress vice our sweatpants and baggy shirt? It's not JUST about comfort)

Much of reality isn't really all that "real", if you think about it.

Okay. I had a think about it.

All of reality is real. That's why it's called reality.

Perhaps what you really mean is that some people don't really understand what is real and what is not real. As demonstrated in this thread.

Meanwhile some people know how to disagree without sounding judgemental, and others dont.

As demonstrated in this and other threads.

I'll be the judge of that!

Well, no, that is not quite what I meant. Perhaps I was being unclear.

Since the words "real" and "unreal" seem to come with all sorts of loaded connotations, let me use "substantitive" and "nonsubstatitive".

The food I eat is sustantitive, the fact that I will die without it also substatitive. But my appreciation for a beautifully presented roast is more unsubstantive. It is that nebulous thing we call esthetics, which is equally present (albeit in different forms) in a virtual environment.

People communicate via symbols--not just words and gestures, but other means such as what we wear, music we listen to, our decisions about where and when to "hang about" and a thousand other such things. Most of these very unsubstantive things are present in a virtual environment.

When I spoke of things in the "real world" being "unreal", this is what I meant. There is no real need for me to buy more than a bare minimum of clothes for work and at home. Yet the overstuffed, disorganized mess that is my closet testifies to my "unreal" need to present myself differently depending on my mood (and I'm REALLY not a clothes horse in RL, honestly). I paid for those clothes with an "unreal" symbol called money. I may have handed a plastic card or piece of paper across the counter, but really, it was a mutually agreeable exchange of symbols between the clerk and I. She agrees with me that the unreal symbols are satisfactory, and I get to walk out the store doors without without exchanging more than a "have a nice day" with the security guard.

Hmm...

You're a great writer!.