Self-Replication in SecondLife Monday, Mar 24 2008
I was thinking about self-replication in SecondLife. I remember one incident that hit the news involved a self-replicating golden ring, Sonic-style. Wondering if there were any videos of self-replicating objects in SecondLife, I searched for “self-replication secondlife” on YouTube and found only this:
This is a test by a member of the SecondLife group Patriotic Nigras. Read the liner notes on the video for an interesting closer look at the thought process behind it.
Other videos on YouTube: Self-Replication in SecondLife, /b/lackout, Particle Test #1, so I herd you like griefing. Some of these are just particle spammers and not really self-replicators per se. I love 1:10 on the last one, because it actually shows the initial cube before it explodes into a cloud of Vegetas. By far, it seems that the most popular targets are the Lindens.
Here’s another one by Patriotic Nigras: “Luskwood: It’s Raining Lulz”. This is a griefer attack on a furry sim. An interesting look at what happens when a sim is saturated with noisy, self-replicating objects. Let me know if you find anything else.
I see all this as a preview of what will happen in the real world once hobbyists get their hands on synthetic life and self-replicating robotics.
Indeed– here’s the SL link. http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/361
…and that’s one of the many issues Transhumanists need to deal with in the real world. How to handle ‘griefers’ and ‘player killers.’
With the caveat that some of them are running on bad ‘hardware’ to begin with. (Science Daily: “Brains Are Hardwired To Act According To The Golden Rule.” Discover Magazine: “Has Science Found a Way to End All Wars?”) …biological altrusim has been left out of some people’s genetic makeup. (we’re not talking about traditional sociopaths.)
Then, there’s the matter of goal
differentiation between societies, cultures and sub-cultures. Goals that differ from those of many Transhumanists. (Enter Tevye singing “Tradition.”) Additionally, there is the matter of brain plasticity in anyone older than twenty. After a lifetime of inculcation with, “This is the way things have always been done,” and “This is what my authority figures have always said, so that’s that,” new things are a wee bit more difficult to learn and to accept.
…and there’s more than six billion people on the earth… …a good many of whom are over the age of twenty.
The technologies are here to stay, however. In the long and short term, their use – especially if altrusitc – can be a good thing…a very good thing for all of us.
So what’s the solution?
Top down, authoritarian, elitist, bureaucratic, government approaches? Bottom up, grassroots education and marketing campaigns? A combination of both? Other?
Thus far, the dialogue from Transhumanists has been pretty much a one way street. Often, delivered with a large dose of cult-like “Us against The Rest of the World,” mentalities and behaviours.
At the same time, many of the technologies are already in research and development by people and institutions who have nothing at all in
common with Transhumanist sensibilities. There are literally thousands of them! Assuming your own motivations are altrusitic in nature, how do you influence *them*? They are approaching things with their own individual and national or corporate philosophies, ideologies, motivations and design biases already in place.
An additional caveat is that much of the human race are only three generations removed from a time where nothing in a man’s life changed from the time he was born to the time he died. Culturally, socially and politically, this has a direct impact on our acceptance of “New Things.” The next time you experience an “Uncanny Valley”
moment, remember that….even knowing that you know better, that “moment” is still a visceral experience. How much more so for those billions of people who don’t know or understand what you otherwise calmly accept as a ‘given?’
If these types of things aren’t addressed, in the real world, well …from stage right, enter the ‘griefers’ and ‘player killers.’
Sou desu ne…