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Better World Island - virtual space Posted to: Networked Theory of a Better World by Tom Munnecke (1530), Fri, 07 Jan 2005 12:02:00 PST Edited: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 18:07:15 PST Feedback score: 0 +|- (net 6 from me) Tags: second-life Comments: 57 by 17 members (most recent: 42 weeks ago by Andrew Hoppin (16)) Viewed: 705 times by 145 members Note: this message is continued in Better World Island, part 2 and then Better World Island, Part 3
I was poking around the Second Life virtual world web site last night. It is run by Linden Lab, in which Omidyar Network has invested. It allows folks to build their own virtual world, populate it with buildings, etc. It has a pretty good scripting language (C/Java-like) which would allow folks to program autonomous agents. I wandered around last night a little, scouting out locations that might be suitable for Tortoise and Achilles and I to have our chats. Here's a snapshot of me taken at sunset, my favorite time of day, taken by Tortoise:
I am thinking about buying an island on Second Life and naming it Better World Island. Once we get the basic territory, we can build Mt. Uplift (kind of like Half Dome in Yosemite), an ancient Greek village, and a special house in which I would have a glorious study in which to write my book. Readers could teleport to the very same bench that I had my chat with Homer, for example, and meet other readers, years hence. It could be a place where more and more people come to discover their own power to make a Better World. We could build an Olympic Stadium in which to simulate a Mexican Wave. Observers could surf on the wave using a special sky-surfboards, while folks on the field below tweak the parameters for generating the wave. We could also simulate ant colonies wandering up Mt. Uplift, or even have cat-herds (folks who learn how to herd cats). We could flocks of birds flying by, self-organizing into V-formations. We could have a fractal forest, an entire ecosystem of plants which are generated by L-systems formulas. We could give people bright red horseshoe magnets which they could carry around with them, attracting them to specific locations on Better World Island or each other. Folks could fly themselves, or we could have specially designed Better World sky-scooters which would allow folks to fly around an be attracted to the most interesting sites. We'd have lots of space available for subdivisions and new ideas--the island would be crawling with them. We could even create a Better World Mall, where folks could get the latest and greatest ideas from the Better World Toolkit. Then, they could go out and practice with them on Mt. Uplift, so that we could get feedback on what tools work best through simulations. It would be a wonderfully open space for folks to come and try out their ideas, meet each other, and develop their own things. Maybe we could even integrate the Omidyar.net reputation system to Better World Island, so that folks can use their feedback points for stuff on the Island, perhaps buying magnets to put on various objects. This would be an interesting virtual world within which to write the book. Note that the building of the world would be self-referential to the theme of the book: We build Better World Island (illustrating toaster-like thinking) We grow a community on it (people appear; we open up the island for subdivisions and further development) in a cat-like manner. Good Things condense in this new environment (like snowflakes). Pretty exciting, actually, I've never bought a whole island before. I wonder what might emerge. Tortoise: This is a fantastic idea! After all these years, I get to move into a real space! I am so tired of living behind other's typewriters. I've never been able to move past the colon after my name. Tom: Yes, we'll set up a race track for you and Achilles to have your race to illustrate Zeno's paradox. Folks will love it. You'll be the stars at the Olympic Stadium. Achilles: Please, no, Tom. I am soooooooo tired of that race. It's been 2,500 years now. Can't we give it a rest? Can't Calliope and I go off to some quiet corner and um, spend some quality time together? Tom: You'll have your chance, Achilles. But the race stays. Gotta do the zero thing. Tortoise: When are you going to actually start all of this? Tom: I think we just did. Tortoise: You mean that everything we say is showing up in a book? Isn't this a little too self-referential? Tom: Nope. I really think that if we build it and they will come. OK, Tortoise and Achilles, I'll race you to Better World Island to see who gets there first. Homer: What about me? Can't I come along? I'm pretty good at finding islands. Butterfly: And me, too! I've been flapping my wings down in South America for years, and people have been accusing me of all sorts of weather misdeeds. I want a chance to clear my name. Zeno: You're all already half way there. Ready, Set, GO!!! (So Tom, Tortoise, Achilles, Homer, and Butterfly go charging off on a yellow brick road, followed by readers who find this wormhole sometime in the future to discover their own power to make a better world)
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By Lars Hasselblad Torres (3514), Fri, 07 Jan 2005 12:38:28 PST Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me) so what's your second life name? tom tortoise? how can we interact with your virtual space (say, you look pretty hunky ;)
By Lars Hasselblad Torres (3514), Fri, 07 Jan 2005 12:39:15 PST
Edited: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 12:39:40 PST
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also, if everybody buys an island on second life, what does the world end up looking like?
By Sue Braiden (CCAL30) (2031), Fri, 07 Jan 2005 13:47:38 PST
Edited: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 14:39:32 PST
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This kicks butt :^)
I have to admit I'm a major AI and V-Life GUI junkie. I've invested a number of years into exploring a variety of digital spaces, and find that they offer a lot of potential for breaking down some of the real world barriers that exist when you're interacting with people. Cyberspace is a little disembodied, and 3-space provides a greater feeling of grounding and connectedness when the interface is simple enough.
I invested a ton of time in development for "Community Frontiers" back in the late 90s and early part of this decade using a technology developed by Randy Farmer and Chip Morningstar. The thing that was so great about it was that it was a really simple toolset. Name and ownership changed a few times, from Habitat (LucasArts), to WorldsAway (Fujitsu), to VZones (private ownership). (Old interface with pictures here).
I was left holding the bag when the third incarnation went bankrupt and all of my development (proprietary platform) completely disappeared. Hard lesson learned and really disheartening, and while I've found other perfectly adequate platforms to build on since then, many are kind of rogue communities with an agenda driven by something less than a PG audience.
THIS, however, looks kind of cool, and I remember hearing about it a few months ago on another mailing list.
Gonna have to check this out and return with a bit of feedback, Lars. Thanks a bunch for the heads-up!
By Lars Hasselblad Torres (3514), Fri, 07 Jan 2005 13:57:48 PST
Edited: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 14:45:56 PST
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yeah? i'm up there as Lars Took ;) A friend of mine is trying to model a deliberative and democratic community up there. Haw haw. Anyway, it'll be fun to see y'all up there.
I do it mostly cos i have a fascination with anything that fascinates people i am fascinated with -- always trying to learn more about the "glue" real-time and my primary interest tends be around ideas of social capital and whether or not online community members exhibit the same degree of social trust in meat space as we do in online spaces. big implictions for politics i think (e.g. if im more likely to develop trust in people in online communities, and have a larger network there, how does this impact real world activity like giving, taxes, and voting?).
I see three kinds of impacts: - Neutral treament (doesn't change people's levels of social trust) - Positive (raises their level of social trust) - Negative (reduces social trust) - A lateral movement (moves peoples trust levels into new kinds of networks, etc)
I know this is a simplistic narrowing of the dynamic and there are a lot of variables, and its hard to collect baseline data. over the next couple of months i hope to develop some experimental methods and tools for this.
By Sue Braiden (CCAL30) (2031), Fri, 07 Jan 2005 14:38:37 PST Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me) Lars Hasselblad Torres said: always trying to learn more about the "glue" real-time and my primary interest tends be around ideas of social capital and whether or not online community members exhibit the same degree of social trust in meat space as we do in online spaces. big implactions for politics i think (e.g. if im more likely to develop trust in people in online communities, and have a larger network there, how does this impact real world activity like giving, taxes, and voting?)
Thought I'd include a pic from First Frontiers. The neat thing was that it made you think you were in meatspace, which dropped the barriers between people a lot more quickly. It was an interesting new way to hold meetings. When you have a sense of shared "space" it tends to make things a little more personal.
By Lars Hasselblad Torres (3514), Fri, 07 Jan 2005 14:47:29 PST
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hm, i'm always interested in that link with immersive environments: that old-school film notion of suspending disbelief. one description i heard was an eerie twist: convincing people they were having novel conversations with themselves.
By Sue Braiden (CCAL30) (2031), Fri, 07 Jan 2005 15:23:33 PST
Edited: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 13:23:15 PST
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I'm registered at Second Life now as Sue Stonebender, and have downloaded/installed the GUI, but can't seem to get connected to the server. It just times out. Perhaps it's a really busy time of day. I'll keep trying.
By Sue Braiden (CCAL30) (2031), Fri, 07 Jan 2005 15:51:34 PST Edited: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:34:19 PST Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me) Hmm ... a little frustrating with early exploring. Downloaded and installed no problem. Told Norton Internet Security to recognize it as an allowed program. Allowed cookies to both the secondlife.com and forums.secondlife.com domains, and still no joy. I get logged in via the website long enough to view my account, and then when I click on any of the tabs, it asks me to log in again. About one in every 15 attempts it allows me to reconnect. The other 14 just keep asking me to log in. Usually this is a sign that cookies are required but not enabled, but since I've taken care of that, I'm a little stumped. I'm using Windows XP and Norton Internet Security 2004, and the MSIE browser build I'm using MSIE build 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030422-1633 with 128 bit encryption. I've cleared my cache incase it's hanging onto some ghost. Still dead. I can't get logged into the world server through the application itself at all. It keeps timing out when it goes to verify protocol version. Unfortunately even the FAQ and support/troubleshooting areas are password protected. Anyone else encountered these problems? Perhaps there is something obvious I'm missing?
By Tom Munnecke (1530), Sat, 08 Jan 2005 10:08:45 PST
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Yes, I tried installing it on three machines before I got it to work... it is a challenge, but hopefully worthwhile. Sue, have you checked your firewall settings? I am presuming you have a high speed connection.
My name on Second Life is Tortoise Calliope. And Lars, the physique and amount of hair on my avatar is truly reflective of the inner me. (My wife says your truffles are delicious, by the way. Giving her those chocolates is one way I keep my physique as you see it above).
Re: spillover from Second Life to "first life" - I think that simulations can be of great value... I can write words and formulas all day long about Brownian Ratchets, but to have a simulation in which something moves up hill on its own accord by some kind of "traction" would make things a whole lot more real to folks.
I also think that the better world toolkit could "live" in this space, and its use could be honed through simulation... not quite sure how to do this... I am intrigued with what Gail Taylor might come up with on the notions of simulation carried over from her face-to-face workshops (She'll be doing a workshop at Davos, Lars)
Another issue that I'm constantly dealing with is trying to deal with is trying to get outside of the system we are dealing with. Folks are asking "How many bottom lines do we need in our accounting systems?" when I am trying to say that we need something different than transactional accounting for transformational systems. So, while the accounting Problem-Industrial Complex is saying the problem with our accounting system is that we don't have enough accountants, bottom lines and regulations, I am saying we need another approach in domains dealing with transformational activities. Doing a frontal assault on this topic through prose and essays may not be as effective as showing a "Second Life" model which uses simulation, for example.
And yet another reason this appeals to me is that it attracts a younger crowd into the topic... folks who might not be interested in reading a book. I am not an expert in the electronic gaming world (although several of my neighbors are); I suspect that having some games/world creating communities outside of the shoot-em-up genre would be a positive thing to do.
Plus, it would just be fun to explore a writing style of a stand-alone book which links to an interactive video game/virtual world. Lewis Carrol never had it so good.
I am toying with modelling the island roughly after Santorini, in a kind of crescent with another island in the focus of the crescent. An entrance area is paved with yellow bricks, serves as a general meeting area. This located at the base of the vertical wall of Mt. Uplift, and leads to a village area with a Mall for the better world tools and ideas. A stadium is off in another direction, and maybe an amphitheater in another. An airport for sky-scooters allows folks rapid access around the island. I'd put my office on the top of Mt. Uplift with a 360 degree view of the island and ocean. There would be lots of space for folks to develop their own subdivisions, and a sandbox area for people to try out new things...
By Evonne Heyning (CCAL30) (2414), Sat, 08 Jan 2005 12:32:24 PST
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Tom, this is beautiful, what a dreamer you are! When I have time I'll be sure to check out your Better World.
Lars' comment on social capital is exactly the ground I'm treading...looking at new ways to develop social capital in the world of philanthropy and compassionate action. Recent crisis campaigns got me thinking about the bonds that are created through gifts and how we can use this basic form of outreach as a way to connect people long-term.
Ideally ten years from now everyone will have access to these tools of connection and can thank each other virtually in a world where the buildings are standing and everyone is fed!
Lars, please update us on your experiments with virtual trustbuilding and networking, and I'd love to hear how you would add to the Global Gifts Network. Also, there's an interesting speech called Viva Las Xmas given by the man who founded Burning Man, Larry Harvey, on the power of gifts to create social capital.
By Lars Hasselblad Torres (3514), Sat, 08 Jan 2005 16:50:00 PST
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Thanks, Jennifer -- i'll begin exploring your links to better understand your frames in this work.
Second Life has worked great on my G4 laptop: easy installation, seamless registration and unbroken connection during my first 1.5 hour foray. Its not a very "sticky" environment for me, I have to say; spent most of my time tinkering with my profile too see what is possible: pretty versatile but a slow refresh rate, so annoying to do).
Here's an experiment i'd like to try. I got wigged out teleporting to Ahsus or whatever the first destination is. People asking if i wanted to buy a gun (me: "uh, i don't think so." tomo (or something like that): "you sure?" me: "should I not be sure?" tomo "should you not what?")... Anyway, lots of people milling about chatting about this and that. have to say its a completely novel experience for me, and i found myself trying to purposefully "break" real-world habits. One of the useful and not useful tips i was given by "kitty" something was: "be as careful here as you would in the real world." ominous: i'm not very careful. and i certainly don't carry a gun! (the dude with the AK on steroids kinda freaked me out).
Anyway, so i thought it would be kinda neat to all port in together and see what we can learn :)
By Sue Braiden (CCAL30) (2031), Sat, 08 Jan 2005 23:54:09 PST
Edited: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 00:01:52 PST
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Tom, yes, I've made sure my firewall settings allow both secondlife.com as a Trusted site, and the two sets of port ranges that need to be open to allow it.
I've even uninstalled my Norton Internet Security, and gone back to Windows Firewall, but still no joy. I'm heading to my husband's laptop and my kids' machines next ;^)
I WILL get this darned thing to work. It reminds me a great deal of the Moove's Rose Roomancer (Germany) and Cybertown (which also allowed users to customize their own avatars and build/sell their own props/ojects), perhaps minus the "adult nature" that tended to dominate both of them.
By Sue Braiden (CCAL30) (2031), Sun, 09 Jan 2005 00:00:35 PST
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Found a new toy to amuse myself with as well:
http://www.omidyar.net/user/u954082727/news/26/
Interesting extension of the Google Labs sets, and a nice alternative to The Brain.
Terrific visual topic map when you type in omidyar.net, or the URL for your user profile here. Have a look-see.
By Tom Munnecke (1530), Tue, 11 Jan 2005 11:54:39 PST
Edited: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 11:56:08 PST
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I've updated the Uplift Academy community, "dusting it off" per Ravi's recommendation. I see the Uplift Academy as closely linked to the Better World Island world, sharing the Better World Toolkit, so that we can use the tools in simulation on the quests up Mt. Uplift. If the military (and kids) can play war games, then why not have us play better world games? hmmm... Maybe we could hold the Better World Olympics in the Stadium.
I'm planning to hold a kick-off event this Friday in the virtual world. I'll build a Wormhole which will be a portal into the future from which we will expect future folks to help us design this world. (This will illustrate some ideas behind Anticipatory Systems Theory)
I'd like to get avatars representing Tortoise, Achilles, Homer, Calliope, Butterfly, and Zeno to show up for the photo op - it will be a Bon Voyage party sending Homer into the Wormhole on an odessey to see what he finds there. Lars is already doing Homer... I'd like to get some good wardrobe folk to help dress the characters...particularly the shell on Tortoise's back.
I'd like to hold the Bon Voyage party this noon (PST) on Friday at the main pavillion - my name is Tortoise Calliope.
anyone else up for joining the party?
p.s. I'll be online this afternoon at 4 PM PST.
By Sue Braiden (CCAL30) (2031), Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:10:49 PST
Edited: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:20:28 PST
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Tom, I'd love to join you, if only I can get it to function on my computer.
Still no joy :^(
The one thing I will say for their tech team is that they are fast, committed and on top of things. Really impressed with their level of support.
May end up having to persuade my kids to let me install in on one of their computers for now so that I can join you.
Regarding the Uplift Academy -- what first got me into building in third-space was something similar. I was looking to cultivate an online mentoring program for kids at risk with a number of colleagues back in the late 90s. I stumbled on Fujitsu's "Worlds Away" (originally "Habitat", created by Randy Farmer and Chip Morningstar when they were with Lucas Arts). When I was exploring inworld, I met a youth mentor from the Bronx. He was talking about how he lost one of his kids that day. He'd been shot in a gang war. This was a kid with a LOT of potential, but as is often the case, trying to engage him in activities that got him off the street and out of harm's way was a real challenge. This fellow and I got talking about how powerful it might be if we were able to use a technology like "Worlds Away" -- which was very much like a Sony Playstation game -- to get kids to interact with mentors, and give them the chance to learn new skills and develop new interests in a safe environment. I formed an alliance with the group that owned the technology in Fujitsu, and went ahead and built "First Frontiers". It was incredibly exciting, because like Second Life, we were able to manipulate everything from the landscape to the props, crafting and idea environment within which we could interact with the kids. We had online workshops, art studios, even an interactive basketball court. It was amazing, and very much like the best parts of the real world. Kids had the chance to build new literacy and math skills in a way that didn't feel like education. We had Shane Doan of the NHL Phoenix Coyotes, a movie producer, a rock star, and a handful of other incredible "Big Kids in Residence" lined up to mentor. The day we were to go live, it all disappeared. The technology had been sold, the new owner went bankrupt, and we were left with a wonderful program that disappeared literally overnight.
When I see Second Life, it seems like a technology that offers the same kind of "I don't have to think about it" interface. Seems very intuitive and fun. I hope that this might be, as it's called, a "Second Life" for the kind of better world building I'd envisioned, and that you clearly imagine in a much larger context now.
Consider me an ally ...
By Tom Munnecke (1530), Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:53:00 PST Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me) I am not wedded to Second Life, just exploring it.... If there are other systems or approaches out there, I'd be very interested....
By Sue Braiden (CCAL30) (2031), Tue, 11 Jan 2005 13:23:30 PST Edited: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 13:24:25 PST Comment feedback score: 1 (*) +|- (net 0 from me) There are several. From a pure techology point of view (as opposed to how the technology is currently being marketed and used), the ones that come to mind are: VZones - http://www.vzones.com/ what WorldsAway became, and under new management. downside: too oriented to the dating scene (abundantly evident in their new front end marketing); not as much control over environment (can manipulate personal scenes, but can't create/promote new objects) upside: brilliantly simple technology / visually rich / has it's own economy if they offered a "developers toolkit" as Fujitsu had originally planned when I first starting using it, this would still be my poison of choice Cybertown - http://www.cybertown.com/ one of the oldest on the net upside: customizable to the extent that you can create your own avatars and objects; has it's own economy, and allows users to create and sell objects and services downside: at times quite an explicit adult culture Moove / Rose Roomancer http://www.moove.com/ perhaps even more oriented to adult themes than the first two most highly customizable easy to navigate As I said in an earlier thread: two thumbs up on the infrastructure, two thumbs down on the short-sighted marketing model they've resorted too in all three cases. There's also The Palace - http://www.thepalace.com/ I haven't used it in a long time, and found it to be far less evolved in the context of a fully-immersible environment. More like a traditional chat with movealble icons. There are two other tools that I've used in the past that were strictly related to a rated-G/educational environment, and that I really enjoyed. I'll dig them up and come back to share them here if they're still in existence.
By Sue Braiden (CCAL30) (2031), Tue, 11 Jan 2005 13:28:18 PST
Edited: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 16:41:55 PST
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Of course, not to overlook The Sims Online. Were I to build my own GUI (which I have infact wasted a lot of time on in the past), this would be how I would do it.
Again, as with the first three I mentioned, the technology is brilliant, but the marketing/use very shortsighted. If I had my 'ruthers, I'd take the Sims approach over even VZones.
By Tom Munnecke (1530), Tue, 11 Jan 2005 16:12:23 PST Edited: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 13:37:36 PDT Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me) not sure who is online at the moment.. Kitto Mandala and Tortoise Calliope are working on the large tubular cylinder..
By Evonne Heyning (CCAL30) (2414), Tue, 11 Jan 2005 17:11:08 PST
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I signed up as Evonne Withnail but was unable to get the program to load correctly on OS X. Still waiting to hear from support.....
By Tom Munnecke (1530), Tue, 11 Jan 2005 18:30:33 PST
Edited: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 13:44:03 PDT
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I just came back from a scouting expedition to check out the wormhole with Pierre and Rob. Here is a trip report:
Trip ReportThese are snapshots taken Jan 11, 2004 in Second Life looking at story settings for Toasters, Cats, and Snowflakes. If you look closely, you will notice that all three are wearing Socks and Sandals
Tortoise Calliope, Kitto Mandala, and Robbobobbo Maginot, sitting in front of the Better World Worm Hole that Tom just built, wondering what the heck it might be. If you look closely, you'll notice that all three are wearing socks and sandals. Flames off to the right lend and air of urgency to get the contraption working.
Tom sits in front of wormhole:
And then he wanders into the it to what it looks like from inside.
This is what it might look like when time travelers from the future appear in the wormhole. The hand on the lower left was actually a passerby, a warlord asking Tom to join his army. (the request was refused)
All photos courtesy Tortoise
By Pierre Omidyar (CCAL30) (2414), Tue, 11 Jan 2005 19:41:36 PST
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Great pictures, Tortoise! It was fun to get back in the world. I need more time for my Second Life!
By Sue Braiden (CCAL30) (2031), Tue, 11 Jan 2005 20:24:35 PST
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Cool pics, Tom. Looks a lot like Cybertown. The socks and sandals lend an air of authenticity ;^)
Have you done anything with the wormhole? Are you using it to transport to other places? Do you have control over this, or is there an element of randomness and surprise?
How are you finding navigation? Are you finding there's a lot of thinking involved in moving around and interacting? How easy is it to manipulate objects and scenery within the world?
(I've dumped Norton Internet Security 3 times to try to resolve the possibility of any firewall issues, and have practically rebuilt my home network trying to get this darn thing to run. These little postcards you keep sending from the edge are making me antsy!)
By Tom Munnecke (1530), Tue, 11 Jan 2005 21:05:40 PST Comment feedback score: 0 +|- (net 0 from me) Sue, I am still trying to figure out how time travel and wormholes work. I really don't know much about them at all, they just seem like an interesting literary gimmick. -from Time Travel and Modern Physics: "Wheeler and Feynman (1949) were the first to claim that the fact that nature is continuous could be used to argue that causal influences from later events to earlier events, as are made possible by time travel, will not lead to paradox without the need for any constraints. Maudlin (1990) showed how to make their argument precise and more general, and argued that nonetheless it was not completely general. Imagine the following set-up. We start off having a camera with a black and white film ready to take a picture of whatever comes out of the time machine. An object, in fact a developed film, comes out of the time machine. We photograph it, and develop the film. The developed film is subsequently put in the time machine, and set to come out of the time machine at the time the picture is taken. This surely will create a paradox: the developed film will have the opposite distribution of black, white, and shades of gray, from the object that comes out of the time machine. For developed black and white films (i.e. negatives) have the opposite shades of gray from the objects they are pictures of. But since the object that comes out of the time machine is the developed film itself it we surely have a paradox. However, it does not take much thought to realize that there is no paradox here. What will happen is that a uniformly gray picture will emerge, which produces a developed film that has exactly the same uniform shade of gray. No matter what the sensitivity of the film is, as long as the dependence of the brightness of the developed film depends in a continuous manner on the brightness of the object being photographed, there will be a shade of gray that, when photographed, will produce exactly the same shade of gray on the developed film. This is the essence of Wheeler and Feynman's idea. Let us first be a bit more precise and then a bit more general." And from Time Travel in Flatland? "Flatland; a romance of many dimensions is a short novel by Edwin Abbott published in London in 1884. Abbott described his interactions with beings who live in a flat plane of two spatial dimensions, and showed how we might perceive the existence of higher dimensions. Abbott wrote Flatland before the unified picture of space and time emerged in early 20th century mathematics and physics. Nowadays we would say that the Flatlanders live in 2+1 dimensional spacetime -- two space dimensions and one time. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is much simpler in Flatland (plus time), so that is where we'll start exploring what it means to travel in time." Tortoise: [whispering to readers outside of Tom's range] Ha! Tom doesn't know that I actually came through a wormhole to help him write this story. He just thinks he is writing this story. I am an observer with future causality. This will all be clear by the end of the story, when I get into the wormhole to go back to start this story you now see emerging. Tom is clueless. Don't listen to him. If he knew I was actually a time traveller from the end of the story, he would just melt down in a state of befuddled synaptic gridlock. He knows full well you can't understand a system from the inside. He should just shut up and write. When he tells you that he is writing this story, just humor him.
By Tracy Spaight (84), Wed, 12 Jan 2005 19:57:55 PST
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Very cool creation Tom. My creations are still rather primitive, since I haven't gotten the hang of all the building tools. I'd love to visit next time I'm in Second Life. If I send you a tell in game, can you teleport me to the location? My in-game name is Cybernaut Bixby.
-Tracy
continued BWI beginnings 2
