Primitive Avatars, Infinite Thinking and Monolith 8 Should Not Exist in Second Life.
Posted in John Rice rounds up the Magic Circle idea on his blog- and it is still an outstanding issue in my eyes. I recommend his short Wii post.
Wayne Porter and Dusan Writer discussed Edward Castronova’s contentions regarding the Magic Circle here and here. So, the concept is alive and well and discussed frequently in the serious gaming community. There has been a lot of solid gaming research emerging from Finland, and this conference looks very interesting. The deadline for abstracts is Jan. 15.
“The Magic Circle” and preserving its sanctity… I don’t believe any gaming circle is sacrosanct and by inscribing such “sacred space” you miss the “real game” or the ability to take gaming to whole new heights. A lot of discussions have been going on in world about Second Life’s “Economy”… one of the hidden secrets and assets in the Second Life milieu is the ability to rapidly find and connect those very forward thinking, collaborative and creative people (who do not always agree) to explore things and explore new modes that cause break through thinking.
So imagine a primitive island, on a grid, where some of these people congregate to spear fish and discuss something like The Zeitgeist Movie- ok a bit silly WHAT type of people would make a primitive island when you can make so much more?…..a few links to the movie, I am not going to debate the “factual errors or omissions” or take on a religious debate. I am just saying that primitive avatars COULD be extrapolating ideas from this film and using it as an intellectual catalyst…
Video Description:
Zeitgeist - The Movie” is a three part film. The film, unedited, is two hours long. The video you are currently watching is part three of three of the film; “The Federal Reserve”. If you’d like, you can view parts one (Religion) and two (World Trade Center) in my profile.
I have split this video into five parts. You can view the entire video at this link.
I can hear the primitive avatar talk now- Central Bank, Interest, Federal Reserve Act, Secret Meetings, Front Men, The Fed, Economic Stabilizers, Zero Crisis, Dionysus, Purple Robes…
Corwin Chevalier notes in a group…(yes he sent it out twice- he couldn’t “verify” it went out.”)
This is a brief notice to let members know of a new and ongoing “exercise” currently located on currently being constructed “fastlane” island.
Mythically- “The Monument of Time is a place where the magic of art, technological sorcery and old school wizards blaze up to meet in secret and trade spell craft, knowledge, power, build alliances and puzzle out what the timeless monolith is spelling out. The actual lore behind this exercise was the construction of seven (7) black granite textured monoliths by a long-time resident years ago- not all have been found. Some are “lost”.
Recently a “Monolith 8″ surfaced at the top of seven scripted steps. This piece was acquired by the head of this group though terms undisclosed for the exercise.
As per the charter there are no “right answers”, it is more important to ask the right questions about our virtual worlds and engage in conversation. Participants will find many recurrent mathematical symbols, historical symbols and formulas in the build. In addition obvious themes could time, virtual age, genetics, memetics, scarcity, authenticity, value, and aesthetics- even economics.
Members are welcome to study the build, interact with items from inside Second Life or other media to see what type of questions these recurrent themes and symbols stimulate- if any. The build is not static and will change over time.
All are welcome.
Play close attention to dates, scripts, effects, Second Life history, art, search results and other mediums that might produce thought or a different view of the virtual. Members are welcome to create, within good “prim limits” visual interpretations (submit to members with title Historian) or Officers, or post on their land. In addition comments via blogs, twitter, BlogHud, SlTweets, or writing about what questions or thoughts you have on any “social media”. At times disabling spatial music may allow you to hear other sounds.
and a list of factoids to stimulate thought is included….Virtual History, Virtual Preservation, Mathematical Riddles, and Trivia that seem to hint towards some breakthrough thinking on?time, virtual age, genetics, memetics, scarcity, authenticity, value, and aesthetics- even economics. and they are inviting others along, if they dare, to see what questions they have.
Then some tidbits about eight that run from physics to astronomy to chess…you can find Monolith 8 here.
Video Games web2.0In chess, each side has eight pawns and the board is made of 64 squares arranged in an eight by eight lattice. The eight queens puzzle is a challenge to arrange eight queens on the board so that none can capture any of the others.
In nuclear physics, a magic number, the second, is a number of nucleons (either protons or neutrons) such that they are arranged into complete shells within the atomic nucleus.
The *seven* known magic numbers as of 2008 are: 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, 126
In particle physics, the eightfold way is used to classify sub-atomic particles.
An octopus has eight tentacles.
Messier object M8, a magnitude 5.0 nebula in the constellation of Sagittarius.
The New General Catalogue object NGC 8, a double star in the constellation Pegasus
As of 2006, in our solar system, eight of the bodies orbiting the Sun are considered to be planets.
The atomic number of oxygen.
The number of allotropes of carbon.
The most stable allotrope of a sulfur molecule is made of eight sulfur atoms arranged in a rhombic form.
The maximum number of electrons that can occupy a valence shell.
Superstition and divination
In the major arcana of most tarot, card No. 8 is “Strength”.
If each of the classical elements is assigned a cosmic projection, the resulting number (8) represents them.
In numerology, 8 is the number of building, and in some systems, also the number of destruction having unique polar meanings.
In Astrology, Scorpio is the 8th astrological sign of the Zodiac
In the middle ages, 8 was the number of “unmoving” stars in the sky, and symbolized the perfection of incoming planetary energy .
August is the 8th month of the year.
A note played for one-eighth the duration of a whole note is called an eighth note, or quaver.
An octave, the interval between two notes with the same letter name (where one has double the frequency of the other), is so called because there are eight notes on a western scale between the two, including the notes themselves
There are eight notes in an octatonic scale.
There are eight musicians in an octet.
Most historic computer architectures are eight-bit.
On most phones, the 8 key is associated with the letters T, U, and V, but on the Black Berry it is the key for B and N
In Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, eight is a holy number and is considered taboo. Eight is not safe to be said by wizards on the Discworld and is the number of Bel-Shamharoth. Also, there are eight days in a Disc week and eight colors in a Disc spectrum, the eighth one being Octarine
October was the eighth month in the Roman calendar; currently August is the eighth month
Eight is the number of categories the VALS system uses to classify consumer groups, and the number of categories used by
In Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, dialing an 8-chevron address will open a wormhole to another galaxy.
8vo is shorthand for “octavo”, a book size…reading and asking questions about things that appear common is a good activity.
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[…] Seems one cannot escape the Snowcrash metaphor these days. At any rate while researching Solipsis I came across some interesting documents- one in particular that readers might find worthy of study- The P2P Manifesto and I quote again because it ties directly into some recent and somewhat abstract exhibits to highlight our notions of economy, genetics, memetics, scarcity, abundance and perhaps even authenticity. […]
[…] both low and high prim density) tied in directly with some of the experiments I had conducted at Monolith Eight and DarkWood…e.g. How do we “preserve” virtual worlds? Should we even […]
I hope the March 15th of the world premiere of the movie Zeitgeist will open up the eyes of the people in this world.