The End of Wayne Unplugged

All experiments must come to an end or so they say. I have spent the last six months on an interesting pilgrimmage. During four of those six months I completely “unplugged” from the grid. No e-mail, No Web, No Net, No cell phone- Nothing…I explored nature, toured back alley graffiti covered alleys controlled by gangs, explored hollows, talked to a wide-range of people and had a host of other adventures. Most of the time I simply thought about things. Exactly where am I going and why?

During the last two months I slowly integrated various social networks into the mix as a spectator only in order to get a feel for what the non-technical or “average” user of social networks and technology experience. I felt I needed to obtain an objective view and I couldn’t do that while inside the fast-paced world of the Net. Not to mention I needed to get into good health once and for all- mission accomplished. I feel great.

Various Insights and Opinions: Emphasis on American Culture since that was my POV.

• Technology is outpacing what society and individuals can responsibly cope with. This will lead to health problems, continued high stress, and a feeling of “never catching up”. With all of this technological power I feel many societies are wired completely wrong.
• Dirt-world communities are rapidly disintegrating and being replaced by a homogenous cyber-culture whose population is devoid of a history of the cyber-culture itself. The new generations will not know their neighbors. This is a novel thing in many ways as people can connect to like-minded people, but if a collapse should occur it pays to know your neighbor. Humans perform better in groups.
• Communities and cultures are being “bleached” away as we slowly move toward a homogenous culture and shared global heritage. This will take time of course, a few generations, but with cell signals invading forest glades it is obvious.
• The trend rejecting abject consumerism is a good thing, but it might be too late as the spectre of economic and social ruin looms on the horizon. Eitherway the transition will be painful and “ruin” is subjective. Standards of living , propped up  by consumerism, will drop. However, quality of life could improve. For example, we could implent initiatives like four-day work weeks and human’s most precious resource- time.
• Most people no longer understand anything about the technology they use everyday and because of this ignorance many people use it without good stewardship. We drive cars we cannot fix, eat food we cannot make or produce, and many operate in an environment they do not understand with a false sense of security. We run and gun this technology with fuel that has probably reached its peak point.

I think we have finally sold our soul for digital trinkets, our privacy for another 10% discount, our lives for cashback, our planet for convenience and our autonomy to mega-corporations knowing full well they will destroy the very core of the communities in which we live. Not that it matters, we don’t know our neighbors anyway and we are prepared to mortgage future generations lives and their planet for plastic.

Some of us exist in fiber, in the cloud, in a haze of blinking circuits. Our identity is defined by fragments of conversation, video clips, digital signals, glowing pixels and our connections to others.

Technology should serve people,  not people serving technology.

Where to Go From Here…

Naturally I have to get down to business, no sabbatical can go on forever- however I have radically changed my priorties and value set. For example, my family now sits down for meals. I know some people do this, but I had lost sight of such a simple pleasure propelled by the fast pace of technology. I didn’t have to eat on the run- I felt I had too.

I am still debating if I will continue blogging here. I believe many blogs will morph into a nexus for the various streams of micro-chunked information and fragments of social interaction- forming a sort of “canon”. Despite this I believe there is value in controlling said nexus as you have limited or no control if you are living completely in the cloud. I am considering radio casts or casts. I don’t think I will do video- I lack the talent. I know I sound negative, but I am bullish on humans.

There are good things on the horizon too-

We just need to figure out what we really want. Not what we are told to want.

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Second Life has taken a bit of beating lately, but don’t be fooled. Virtual Worlds are alot more than trying to sell products or mass market to avatars. Get beyond the ‘blingtardian” factor and you will find some amazing uses. For example a project I worked on, TheWallSL, was commissioned by someone who wanted to remain anonymous. I was stunned at the response, people crying over VOIP, or the fact the virtual memorial was more accurate (sans reflection.) than the real one.

Many companies are on the charge because they realize the many advantages to virtual work spaces go beyond selling trinkets or bumping up average tickets of dirt-world goods.

Let me name a few: reduced costs, enhanced presence and team building of disparate units, fast prototyping, pleasurable, exciting and novel changes to work…the list goes on.

John Chambers, CEO of Cisco is jumping right in and I am a little biased being from his homeland. I have a lot of respect for Chambers and some regional nationalism. He grew up about 30 minutes from my my city in Huntington, WV and has dyslexia- plus he liked to fish. Despite the dyslexia he pilots a true powerhouse. With a disorder like dyslexia it is obvious why someone like Chambers would embrace virtual worlds. 

As I mentioned earlier a colleague had tested their telepresence technology and they were impressed. I hope to have more details for you.

Learn more at CISCO’s blog http://blogs.cisco.com/virtualworlds/

SECOND LIFE

Second Life is a virtual world with millions of square meters of virtual lands (server space), more than 13 million “residents,” (although how many are active is up for debate) and a real economy based on Lindens. Large numbers of colleges and universities—or, in some cases, individual departments or faculty—are active in Second Life, not only for academic purposes but also for campus visits, recruiting activities for prospective students, and fundraising. We even took many on tours to the Vietnam Memorial we created- one many had never seen because of cost, disability or lack of opportunity to name a few reasons. When you heard the reading of the names of those who lost their lives you got an idea how powerful even “virtual worlds and reality can be.”

Let us also not forget recreation. Hang gliding, surfing, horseback riding, fencing, and other things I have no inkling about. Does it replace the real world?

No.

But it can kindle that spark or that interest in new things.

SUNNY IN SECOND LIFE

Sun Microsystems, which makes computer servers and software, operates seven islands in Second Life, two of which are open to the public. The rest are used for training sessions and meetings. During its biggest event, a twelve-hour corporate meeting held in April, 14 of Santa Clara-based Sun’s top executives mixed with hundreds of employees- weird. Skiing, car racing, live jazz and a sandbox were also part of the event. …you start to get the idea. People’s race, religion, sex, etc all fall away and people interact as people. Human beings…and hey not all are dressed as humans. These things really aren’t important- being human is important.

Sun decided to hold the event after it acquired software company MySQL, which tracks its employees by the 110 airports they live near, rather than their actual locations. Sun was looking for a way to introduce the MySQL employees to their Sun colleagues, and Second Life seemed the best solution.

In our far flung world this is a big deal. Having worked with research teams in Bangalore India, Foster City, CA and Huntington, West Virginia I have no doubt that virtual interaction, be it in Second Life or another platform, would have been an important bonding experience and would have saved time and increased esprit de corp.

CIGNA HEALTHCARE

Hoping to make healthcare education hip and hot, Cigna Healthcare announced it has created a virtual environment in the Second Life virtual world to educate people on how to improve their health. I think success will be predicated on how much “fun” they let people have, but this is a good step. Imagination is a good thing. Nothing everything needs to be measured in immediate direct marketing ROI.

SECOND LIFE HAS FLAWS

No it is not perfect- far from it. It has trouble scaling and takes a certain level of indoctrination to learn the ropes…but this is just an early example of what the world we know will produce. It is going to get even more exciting and you can literally fly to the future. Yes it has flaws, but so do humans and that is one of the reasons being human is so great.

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Boards and Such

I stated yesterday that I had accepted an advisory board position with the Association of Virtual Words. I must be a glutton for punishment because I have accepted a (FAB) advisory position with the fledgling Performance Marketing Alliance. Here are some of my nascent thoughts more reading has been collected by Lisa at Revenue Today.

Spontaneous Social Persuasion

On a related note here is the interesting flip side to a Twitter experience I had. Read Chris Warren’s Spontaneous Social Persuasion. Please do not confuse with spontaneous combustion.

Parting shot…Another Shift Happens Video…

 

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Some quick bullets, and a slide show, from Cory Ondrejka , so this post has *some* substance. I agree that Second Life has done quite a bit to further the advancement of Virtual Worlds. As technology advances (Moore’s Law anyone?) I imagine we are going to see innovation really accelerate.

Fact: I have accepted an invitation to join the Association of Virtual Worlds’ Advisory Board along with Chadrick Baker, Lori Bell, Bruno Cerboni, Dr. Sara de Freitas, Francesco D’Orazio, Michael Drew, Rahul Dutta, Cynthia Freese, Sasha Frieze, Dr. Hanan Gazit, Darius Lahoutifard, Dr. Chang Liu, Andrew Peters, Liz Ryan, Colin Trethewey, David Wisotzky and Zafka Zang. Quite a crew of very smart people and future thinkers…I am honored and hope I can make a solid contribution. Release is slated for tomorrow…

Rumor: A preview of CISCO’s telepresence application was described to me as “jaw dropping”. Hope to learn more…source- trusted.

As I said earlier about virtual world growth.

I partially disagree with the “unique marketing opportunity” as that is only part of the equasion. As someone who spends quite a bit of time studying “virtual worlds” I think the bigger bets are on collaboration, eroding work place silos, training, fast prototyping and business interactions. Bank on it- other countries are.

Here is the slide show from Cory…lengthy yet interesting if you look at virtual worlds in context to other technological growth…keep in mind that Spore is coming down the pipe…

 

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I hate to regurgitate stuff, but I will, especially when I think it is not completely accurate.

From StrategyAnalytics.com

Virtual Worlds Projected to Mushroom to Nearly One Billion Users
$8 Billion Market Value Projected for User Services

Analytics today released its forecast of virtual world adoption, which shows that over the next ten years some 22 percent of global broadband users will have registered for one or more virtual worlds resulting in a market approaching one billion registrants and an eight billion dollar services opportunity. The study, “Market Forecasts for Virtual World Experiences,” projects a diversified global market with services targeted at children, teens and adults across a wide range of applications…

“Despite a multitude of challenges, virtual worlds present a unique marketing opportunity to target a highly sought demographic, and virtual worlds should be part of a company’s marketing portfolio,” according to Harvey Cohen, President of Strategy Analytics

I partially disagree with the “unique marketing opportunity” as that is only part of the equasion. As someone who spends quite a bit of time studying “virtual worlds” I think the bigger bets are on collaboration, eroding work place silos, training, fast prototyping and business interactions. Bank on it- other countries are.

To put it bluntly…in 2008 they are already building Teddy Bears that can interface with Twitter. The day will come (probably with the teraflop) when Virtual Worlds or 3D browsing simply dust away the web as you know it. Virtual worlds should be a part of your WORKSPACE portfolio- then worry about marketing.

A Conversation From the Future?

What was HTTP dad? Is it it an illness?

It was before your time son.

Is this about the people who thought you were a bit daft for talking about Virtual Worlds in 2006?

You got it son. Might have been the same ones that called me a retard back in 1996 when I tried to explain to them how important Internet marketing and presence would be.

Sure Dad. Can we get back and go digital fishing on our pixelated yacht?

You got it son. I love this Minority Report Interface…

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GoodReads.com is taking off as a social reading and recommendation platform.

This seems like a good opportunity to remind the thinkers and Hive Minds at QuizAxeHatRack they might want to check into the novel, Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson (Life isn’t all Snowcrash). Not only will the Hive get exposed to neat topics like Van Eck phreaking but a really neat chapter going on about RIST.

“RIST is a bit-pattern designator is a random series of bits used to uniquely identify a RIST. For example, the organism traditionally designed as Earth (Terra, Gaia)has been assigned the designator 0577. This Web site is maintained by 11A4 which is a hive mind. RIST 11A4 assigns bit-pattern designators with a pseudo-random number generator. This departs from the practice used by that so-disant ”hive mind” known to itself as the East Bay Area Hive Mind Project but designated (in the system of RIST 11A4) as RIST E772. This ”hive mind” resulted from the division of ”Hive Mind One” (designated in the system of RIST 11A4 as RIST 4032) into several smaller ”hive minds” (the East Bay Area Hive Mind Project, the San Francisco Hive Mind, Hive Mind 1A, the Reorganized San Francisco Hive Mind, and the Universal Hive Mind) as the result of irreconcilable contradiction between several different semantic memes that competed for mind-share. One of these semantic memes asserted that bit-pattern designators should be assigned in numerical order, so that (for example) Hive Mind One would be designated RIST 0001 and so on. Another meme asserted that numbers should be organized in order of importance, so that (for example) the RIST conventionally known as the planet Earth would be RIST 0001. Another semantic meme agreed with this one but disagreed as to whether the counting should begin with 0000 or 0001.Within both the 0000 and 0001 camps, there was disagreement about what RIST should be assigned the first number : some asserted that Earth was the first and most important RIST, others that some larger system (the solar system, the Universe, God) was in some sense more inclusive and fundamental.

A hive mind is a social organization of RISTs that are capable of processing semantic memes (”thinking”). These could be either carbon-based or silicon-based. RISTs who enter a hive mind surrender their independent identities (which are mere illusions anyway). For purposes of convenience, the constituents of the hive mind are assigned bit-pattern designators. The genetic part of the memomes share 99% of it’s contents with the data set produced by the Human Genome Project. This should not be construed as endorsing the concept of of speciation (i.e., that the continuum of carbon-based life forms can or should be arbitrarily partitioned into paradigmatic species) in general, or the theory that there is a species called ”homo spaiens” in particular. Also, The semantic part of the memomes are still unavoidably contaminated with many primitive viral memes, but these are being gradually and steadily supplanted by new semantic memes generated ab initiao by rational processes. ”

Good read…

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I have been following the world of micro-biology, nanotechnology, genetics, and anti-aging for quite some time. Recently, after being discovered a decade ago Standford researchers found some two new key proteins in regards to telemerase.

Telomers sit at each end of a chromosome, the elongated X-shaped thing that contains our DNA.  After cells divide a little chunk of the telomer disappears, aging the cells.  Old cells off-themselves so they don’t pass on harmful mutations.

Telemerase is an enzyme that repairs damaged telomeres.  Cancer cells have telemerase, and normal cells don’t (it vanishes shortly after birth) which is why cancer cells live forever.  A drug that blocks telemerase should help block cancer, or a drug that induces telemerase could extend life.

So what did Stanford scientists do?  “With gene in hand” and “many technical advances” the scientists “chopped the massive telomerase complex into tiny protein pieces,” put them through a “sensative device that detected the pieces” and found two proteins in telomerase.  They disabled one protein using “genetic trickery” in petri dish cells and found out which gene produced the protein or proteins.

The Importance of Proteins

This is a big deal. It not only means you could, in theory, tell cancerous cells to “die”, but you could essentially tell cells to stop division e.g. eternal life. As an aside and for the curious the genetadox story in Second Life  a.ka.. Primula Rasa: Chevalier versus Prototyper campaign in Second Life was partly inspired by telemerase research.

“In essence, they seek to discover clues as to “how” and “why” they have advanced to such a high stage in evolution, while so many others remain nothing more than what some would consider primitives…or animals at best. A ruling was put forth by the Council of the Galactic Consortium of Lemnus in order to end the rivalry that, based on Seldone Entropical Theory, could cause serious unrest and economic upheaval.

This task, upon completion, would determine which of the two schools of thought would be next in line to lead all advanced life of the known metaverse and access to the rare and precious Genetadox vaccine. The Consortium power structure, by law, must change hands once a millennium. These laws were enacted through the passing of the Genetic Longevity Caste Act due to the much longer life spans granted after genome mapping was completed and stem cell mining was legalized leading to the creation of Genetadox. Also, perhaps, in the process, solve one of the greatest mysteries of all time.”

Enter Molecule CGK733

Korean researchers have found a complex thiourea derivative that can extend the lifetime of mammalian cells and reverse cellular aging.

Colleagues at Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science & Technology report that CGK733 can extend the lifetime of cultured cells by approximately 20 divisions, or roughly 25%.

A cell’s aging is often called ”senescence,” a term that describes the physical and biochemical signs of a cell’s deterioration toward death. These includes signals for the cessation of cell division, release of chemicals from the cell informing others of its impending doom, and an increase in the girth of the cell.

CGK733 is the first small molecule that can reverse aspects of cell senescence. Genetic techniques have been used to do so in the past. However, CGK733 unique is that its antiaging properties are reversible: When CGK733 is removed, cells return to normal aging and death.

That is a big deal. Futurists know we are about to enter into an era the equivalent of a technological blitzkrieg. Quantum computers will usher in this change. Who gets the antidote? Who gets the innoculation? That is part of the story that Primula Rasa was exploring- science versus the mystics and of course, those that choose neither side.

Molecules Versus Genetics

Cellular senescence researcher Judith Campisi of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says CGK733 will be a good lab tool for biologists. “CGK733 is an example of what many scientists hope will be a trend: the identification of small molecules to mimic more cumbersome genetic interventions to regulate cellular behavior.”

Eternal life may be right around the corner. But I have a feeling the war fought to obtain it will kill alot more than it will save. The best bet is to find the cure, encode it into popular music and art and hope humankind evolves a bit more.

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Second Life and the Future 

I have been in Second Life for a long time now, at least in avatar years. I have been fortunate to find many, many bright people and despite its problems that is the single most important reason I have stayed and still do despite a growing wave of virtual worlds that will soon hit the Net. Whether or not Bleys Chevalier and I release MicroPepper and RegionTracker is still under consideration given stability issues.

It is these same issues that prompt this blog. MicroPepper and Region Tracker are designed to let sellers (or universities) scale their micro-vending operations, reporting, and affiliate force with a low-cost flat rate fee- in our opinion it is the best, but that is our opinion. Right now if a delivery fails on initial delivery, we make at least ten more re-attempts to deliver. Starting to get the drift of the pain digital crafters are feeling? You must be able to allow content creators the ability to SCALE and that means reducing customer service overhead.

(Note: If you want to beta test MicroPepper or Region Tracker contact Bleys Chevalier or Corwin Chevalier in-world or message me at Twitter . Currently with only a handful of beta testers the system processes about 500,000 Lindens per month and you can also track your SLEX sales, visitors, frame rates, etc, etc.)

My Timeless Mentor

At any rate one person stands out who has been a great mentor, Timeless Prototype often known for his Multi Gadget, Mookah (Sheesha, Hookah), Radio Controlled Planes, Walk and Talk and a certain couch that I spent hours writing copy for *cough*. I doubt there are few people in Second Life who do not possess a Multi Gadget. I give them out as welcome gifts. There are many knock-offs, but the Multi Gadget does it all. (O.K. It cannot protect you from Prokofy Neva, who is my second favorite person in Second Life.)

Tracking Timeless

As the lore goes, I tracked him down to his underground club, Timeless Underground, where we discussed ancient philosophy over a game of chess, but this is Second Life and nothing is out of the question- like playing chess in a club that looks like an Elder God from the Cthulu mythos was sawed into pieces and scattered about while people are experimenting with trance dance moves from the Matrix.

We, even today, continue our philosophical discussions and he was integral if not essential in collaborating with me on the Primula Rasa  (here for more photos), and the Monolith 8 campaigns, and I was happy to donate island use for the 4th Annual Satellite Exhibition (4ASE) (Click to See Video). You should also catch his famous London Eye and he is also known for helping out with Relay For Life. Warning- his idea of fun is hanging out in sand boxes while dodging LOLCube attacks…in his own words:

I “grew up” in the sandboxes, and it’s always good to remember where you come from in life, even in Second Life, and show your respects. - Timeless Prototype

Time Stands Still?

At any rate Second Life has had its share of issues- as any platform does, but as of late developers are getting waspish. While I parlay with Time on a daily basis I was concerned when I saw this on a scripting list:

 ”…object to object e-mails failing, replying to offline IMs via e-mail
failing, and I’m srsly DONE asking

daily issues

enough!

I’ve taken the Multi Gadget vendor offline, tiered down, waiting for
island parcel rental to expire. I will treat SL as a beta game and/or
chat room until general stability returns.”

Seemed like a good time to get a few answers straight from Time. 

Interview with Timeless Prototype (a.k.a. Time)

Wayne) OK Time, for the uninitiated how long have you been in Second Life?

Time) Since 2004.

Wayne) That is a long time as avatars go. So I take it you do you enjoy the platform?

Time) Yes, it appeals to me on artistic, technical and social levels. No other virtual world comes close to this.

Wayne) I can identify with that. So why pull your vendors offline as I noted in a scripters list ?

Time) If people buy stuff that won’t deliver and I can’t reply via offline IMs because I’m not always at my computer, then I’m going to get unhappy customers…customer satisfaction is incredibly important.

Wayne) What are the top three upsides to Second Life? 

Time) Top three positives: Creativity outlet, shared experiences with friends and micropayment capital of the Internet.

Wayne) How about the top three negatives?

Time) Top three negatives: insufficient business and collaboration tools, intermittent stability and no shiny alpha and shadow casting (immersion is very important, anything that breaks the immersion is a big failure IMHO)

Wayne) As a long-standing and well known veteran where do you think Linden Labs should marshall their resources?

Time) Linden Labs should focus on stability, even if that is to be interpretted as adding new features such as Kelly Linden’s work to make it possible to send HTTP requests to scripts in world so that we won’t need to rely on e-mail protocols for sending data into SL. Hopefully this could also be used for messaging between scripts in world too, being careful about security implications of course.

There is currently also a glitch with rendering updated objects such that the most recent change to the objects does not get applied visually until it is either selected or further updated. It impacts the immersion factor at the end of the day, you bring your mind out of the world by one level to recognize that it’s a glitch.

Wayne) When can we expect your vendors to go back online?

Time) There is currently no planned date for bringing them back online. I guess I need my faith to be restored in the Second Life platform before I commit more time to it, at least from a serious content creation perspective.

Wayne) Any parting words of advice?

Time) Hope can be a very powerful driver. If we lose hope, we’ve lost everything.

That’s all folks…let’s hope Linden Lab get things sorted out. Next topic- Security in Second Life…oxymoron or…

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