10 MAR 2017 by ideonexus
Workspace is Gamespace
It's not surprising that gamespace has become a workplace for hundreds of thousands of "gold famers" who undertake dreary, repetitive labor to produce virtual wealth that's sold to players with more money and less patience than them. The structural differences between in-game play and in-game work are mostly arbitrary, and "real" work is half a game, anyway. Most of the people you see going to work today are LARPing an incredibly boring RPG called "professionalism" that requires them to alter... 1 
notes
notes01 APR 2015 by ideonexus
We are Living in an Ancestor Simulation
Now we get to the core of the simulation argument. This does not purport to demonstrate that you are in a simulation. Instead, it shows that we should accept as true at least one of the following three propositions:
(1) The chances that a species at our current level of development can avoid going extinct before becoming technologically mature is negligibly small
(2) Almost no technologically mature civilisations are interested in running computer simulations of minds like ours
(3) You are...
1 
1 See also Are You Living in a Computer Simulation? by the same author.
19 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
We are the Dreams of a Future AI
An evolving cyberspace becomes effectively ever more capacious and long lasting, and so can support ever more minds of ever greater power. If these minds spend only an infinitesimal fraction of their energy contemplating the human past, their sheer power should ensure that eventually our entire history is replayed many times in many places, and in many variations. The very moment we are now experiencing may actually be (almost certainly is) such a distributed mental event, and most likely is ... 1 notes
notesFrom Hans Moravec's "Pigs in Cyberspace"
15 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
The Truth Religion
The Truth was the presumptuous name of the religion, the faith that lay behind the Shrievalty, the Cessoria, in a sense behind the Mercatoria itself. It arose from the belief that what appeared to be real life must in fact - according to some piously invoked statistical certitudes - be a simulation being run within some prodigious computational substrate in a greater and more encompassing reality beyond. This was a thought that had, in some form, crossed the minds of most people and all civil...Folksonomies: religion virtual reality
Folksonomies: religion virtual reality
1 notes
notes04 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Exodus to the Virtual World
Anyone who sees a hurricane coming should warn others. I see a hurricane coming.
Over the next generation or two, ever larger numbers of
people, hundreds of millions, will become immersed in virtual
worlds and online games. While we are playing, things
we used to do on the outside, in “reality,” won’t be happening
anymore, or won’t be happening in the same way. You
can’t pull millions of person-hours out of a society without
creating an atmospheric-level event.
If it happens in a ...Folksonomies: virtual reality gaming
Folksonomies: virtual reality gaming
1 notes
notesPeople are leaving the real world for the virtual. This will impact society in unanticipated ways.
14 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
eBook Purchasers are Second-Class
We have come to accept as inevitable a duo of coexisting lousy extremes. Sometimes information is supposedly free but people are subject to weird surveillance and influence, with insufficient commensurate rights. This is the familiar world of Google, Facebook, et al. It will not be a sustainable path as technology advances.
On the flip side, customers can be locked into one-sided contracts in order to have access to what they want online. This is the world of proprietary tree-shaped stores f... 1 notes
notesThey are not making an investment with their purchase, they are renting. A physical book can be signed, manipulated, and resold.
28 AUG 2013 by ideonexus
Nationalism in a Virtual World
As the game grew in international popularity, players from all over the
world converged on the U.S. West server, leading to frequent overloading and lag in game play. The problem became particularly acute when Diablo II was released in Korea. Within a few weeks of its release, Diablo II sold 300,000 copies, making it far and away Blizzard’s most profitable overseas launch. This rapid uptake produced a massive influx of game players into U.S. West, causing further problems with game lag. Whe... 1 notes
notesStory of when Diablo II opened in Korea and the influx of users sparked a hostile reaction from Western players.
09 FEB 2011 by ideonexus
The Unfeeling Space of the Internet Makes Us Prize Physic...
Before the Internet, I made more trips to the library and more phone calls. I read more books and my point of view was narrower and less informed. I walked more, biked more, hiked more, and played more. I made love more often.
[...]
How has the Internet changed my thinking? The more I’ve loved and known it, the clearer the contrast, the more intense the tension between a physical life and a virtual life. The Internet stole my body, now a lifeless form hunched in front of a glowing scree... 1 notes
notesStone notes that the Internet has caused her to enjoy the physical world less often, but more intensely when she does surround herself with it. The key being intention to be in one or the other at a particular time.
