There are some learning experiences that are inspired by interactions within Second Life groups. I belong to a group called Play as Being, which gets together in Bieup to discuss things like meditation, mindfulness, the self, and play. Over time, we have evolved an inclusive method for discussion that helps all participants to be understood and appreciated.
It’s a gentle way to communicate, and especially well-suited to a virtual environment where we cannot see on anothers’ real life faces and so we must make an effort to show positive sentiment in our written chats.
In a Yahoo Group email list, we began to discuss an article written by one of our members, who is known as Bleu.
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge342.html
Edge Seminar speaker Jonathan Haidt explored:
Why are humans so bad at reasoning in some contexts and good at reasoning in other contexts?
“Reasoning was not designed to pursue the truth. Reasoning was designed by evolution to help us win arguments. That’s why they call it The Argumentative Theory of Reasoning,” Haidt said.
Another friend responded with this exploration of reason and passion (Hume was one of my required readings a long time ago in college):
“That reminds me of Hume’s argument that ‘reason is and ought only to be the
slave of the passions.’”
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotions-17th18th/LD8Hume.html#ReaOugOnlSlaPas
To this, our group founder and leader, who goes by Pema Pera in Second Life, related Play as Being’s way of gently exploring issues. He said:
“Once we realize that reasoning is mostly arguing,
a way to consolidate your already existing opinions,
we can discern different ways of doing so.
“The simplest way to reason/argue, is to confront
someone else saying ‘I disagree.’ Here is an example:
“A: I think X.
“B: I disagree. I think Y.
“Clearly, that’s neither very helpful, nor very pleasant.
Chances are than immediately both sides harden their
position, drawing battle lines, and defending X and Y.
“The PaB way of reasoning, as it developed very quickly
and is still developing, is more along the lines of:
“A: I think X.
“[ B thinking: X??? How odd, I'm pretty sure it is Y !!!
how interesting that a nice person like A can have such
a strange idea -- I want to know more about that ]
“B: can you say more?
“A: … (saying more) …
“[ B thinking: aha, now I have more of an idea where A is
coming from and the context for thinking X. But let me
make sure I understand, before comparing with my ideas ]
“B: ah, how interesting. So you think X, because of …
(this and that) …
“A: yes, but not quite like that, more like … (such and
such) …
“[ B thinking: okay, that is very helpful, now I have a
more clear picture -- though I still think that Y may
be more correct. Let's see whether we can figure out
our differences. ]
“B: I see. That helps me to understand why you think X.
I myself had thought Y, but I may have to reconsider.
My main argument for Y, rather than X was … (gives
argument) … How does that fit in with your picture?
“At this point, A happily can extend the picture already
sketched and shared, in order to point out how A sees
things differently from B, and they both can walk around
the issue, looking from different angles, while together
finding new vistas.
“Initially, I had not clearly realized that this had become
the PaB way of reasoning by playfully ‘comparing notes’.
It only became clear when we had a few visitors joining us
for a while who were not operating in that mode. Their
much more jarring way of reasoning (like in many academic
forums, or political forums) was very helpful to bring out,
in contrast, what it is that we are all sharing here.”
Sylectra Darwin arrives in Havana, finding not much.
There is a lot of discussion going on about Linden Lab’s recent policy changes. Recently, XStreet SL has decided to charge content providers L99 per month to list a freebie item. Many of these content providers are altruistic and just want to share their work. Most content providers love creating stuff and have no hopes of making any money at it. So charging them for listing their freebie items is making them very angry.
They are often the ones who are paying a lot of tier on some sizeable land in SL. Yet SL is truly the biggest and most used 3D virtual world that’s not a game. We come back to it because of the richness of detail – the builds, the scenery, the people, and the content.
As other grids get past their operability hurdles, however, they will start to become competitive with SL. All that’s really needed is the completion of interoperability standards that allow avatars and their stuff to pass freely among the various worlds. For a decent couple of blog entries on the topic, see http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2009/11/why-second-life-needs-opensim/ and http://sorryafk.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/linden-lab-strikes-again/.
So it occurred to me that I haven’t really spent a lot of time visiting other worlds. Let’s see what else is out there, I told myself. I downloaded the Hippo viewer for Mac and visited OSGrid first.
Cascabel Emporium on Quirm, a Victorian themed storefront.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Quirm/245/80/22
Aha – I’ve been here before – it remembers my email address and avatar name. I am reborn in the world with a basic “Ruth” shape but I quickly find a freebie avatar kit that contains jeans, hair and a hoodie. Yay.
Wanting to quickly wipe the newbie avatar stink off me, I head out to find more freebies that will at least help differentiate me from other avatars. In the process I hope to find content to buy.
In Cascabel Emporium on Quirm, I find a PrimBlender Importer for bringing my work in-world (once I know how to use PrimBlender, which I don’t). I take a free copy just in case.
Teleporting is an issue – can’t do a search in world and click the teleport. However, if you pull up a map you can teleport that way, or using SLURLs from regular web sites. Hmm. I am having trouble finding any recommendations of places to visit that also include SLURLs. Anyone have any recommendations?
