SunOS man pages: A womanwriter's Perspective

Though the message arrived via email, I could hear the fervor in my friend, Richard's written voice. Email is funny that way. The perceived intensity reminded me of another episode, just yesterday, when one of my work friends flung open the door to my office, exclaiming, "You're supporting Obama?" with the intensity of a die-hard Hillary man.

But Richard's message wasn't about the heated race for the Democratic presidential nomination. It was about my Second Life, which he is struggling to understand in a way that many of my non-tech friends are. Of course, my non-tech friends, don't have the monopoly on virtual world skepticism. Many of my tech friends, and even I, sometimes don't get this Second Life thing either. Richard represents a group of my real life friends who follow my blog, and are simultaneously miffed and intrigued by it. As a consequence, when people see real world articles or references to virtual worlds, they think of me. I get lots of good information this way.

So, just what did Richard's email say? Like Richard, the email was somewhat cynical, very direct, and to-the-point. "So, are you helping the terrorists?" This one line was followed by a link to an article in The Washington Post, Spies' Battleground Turns Virtual.

The article starts off ...

"U.S. intelligence officials are cautioning that popular Internet services that enable computer users to adopt cartoon-like personas in three-dimensional online spaces also are creating security vulnerabilities by opening novel ways for terrorists and criminals to move money, organize and conduct corporate espionage."

This "bad things happen in Second Life" article, reminded me of a conversation that I had in the Second Life Sun Microsystems sandbox (I know...) with a Sun Second Life Mentor the middle of last week. He explained to me that there were "Sandbox Guardians," (think "playground supervisors"), part of whose job it was to keep order in the Sun sandbox. You see, sometimes mean avatars cause trouble in Second Life. Some avatars have armor and shields to help protect them from attacks. I don't have any such items and have no intention of acquiring them. Maybe I'm a Second Life wimp, but I figure, if the going gets tough, I'll just log out! Worst case scenario, my avatar gets killed, and I'll have to create another one.

Finally, as if Richard's and the Sun mentor's warnings weren't enough, one of my real life brothers sent me another scary Second Life article, The Fleecing of the Avatars.

Playing in virtual worlds carries some serious risks. I'm glad that people are looking out for me.

Just as my work friend doesn't really think I'll become a Hillary fan, Richard doesn't really think I'm helping terrorists. But, in the way that good friends do, both these men strengthen intellectual debate and cause me to think more critically about the world. And, when I use the word, world, I really, truly, and even, virtually, mean all of them. Truth be told, the fact that I now think in terms of multiple worlds is pretty scary in and of itself.