Recursive Online Viewing

Making a tablet sexy.

JubJubs Stuff has this mod/copy tablet for surfing the 'net while in SL for 20L. Just rez, type in the url and there's your website! Kathy is admiring Cal's revamped website: Weaseltrap Records, home of the Harmonic Capo. Cal is a musician, inventor, and entrepreneur in RL(tm). It's almost impossible to make a living as a musician, so he has to do other things.

This tablet hearkens back to when Lludmila's typist first started in SL 6 years ago and the first place she went was the library on Info Island. At that time it was still a physical building with two floors. There were tiny computers where you could look things up on the internet. Absolutely hilarious! You get online, log into SL, and then go somewhere to search the internet? How does that affect bandwidth?

Info Island is now gone. Mystery Manor, where Lludmila did a few mystery discussions, was burned down last night.

You thought it was an exaggeration?

In just six years the Information Archipelago expanded and then shrank again. Bits of it are still around in the information diaspora, but it seems like the end of an era, if a very brief one. Once again merchandise has won out over information that is handed out for free. We are in the middle of what might be a huge transformation in how economy works. SL has been an experiment on  many levels, but especially on an economic one - not Linden Labs, but inworld. There are many types of participants in the virtual world: landowners, entrepreneurs, paying "players,"  non-paying - and they all contribute. Even the griefers contribute something. There was a griefing today at a shop that Lludmila just had to attend because she hadn't seen a prim bombing in absolute ages.  

Well, they're willies when they finally rez and ... Oooo!
Tiny panda av for only 50L! Must have!

Just as in Real Life(tm), everyone contributes some way. You might think people aren't paying their way, but sometimes that payment is hidden. Renters contribute when their rent helps to pay the taxes the property owner owes. Anytime someone buys something with a sales tax on it, they are contributing two ways. A great deal of our RL(tm) economy is based on crime - criminals have to eat, pay rent, buy stuff - which is obvious, but think of all the peripheral jobs that are dependent on crime: police, lawyers, and all their gear. And then the police and lawyers buy stuff and (just assuming about the lawyers) pay taxes. 

In the virtual world, "crime" mostly consists of copying something someone else has designed and made and selling it or perhaps just giving it away. In RL(tm) up until the internet and filesharing, that was something that could be almost controlled. Now with 3-D printing it seems there is absolutely nothing that can't be copied and distributed for free. Except maybe food. At the moment. So the virtual world is the arena for developing new strategies ... or perhaps a whole new world. 

What would a world where everything was copiable and free be like? If you could have anything you wanted, and not have to pay for it, what would you need money for? Well, other than repairing the 3-D printer. If you don't need money, you wouldn't have to work at the horrid mickey-mouse jobs that just fill space and provide a paycheck. What would you do? What would you have? 

In SL, Lludmila has a file folder full of houses and furnishings. She can change them as often as she wants. She got tired of clothes (acquire clothing, take photo, blog, discard clothing). She's getting tired of houses, too. Things have to be really special to be of interest. Would RL(tm) become like that? 

Something to think about.