Guess who I just met?
Francoise Herrmann (fherrmann who-is-at igc.apc.org)
Thu, 30 Nov 1995 19:22:45 -0800
Hi everyone, I just met Sherry Turkle (in real life!) at a local
bookstore where she is touring to present her new book: Identity in
the age of the Internet: Life on screen. Simon and Schuster, New
York, NY, 1995. I think that her book (which I haven't yet read
but now have an autographed copy of) covers in great detail what
we got a glimspe of in MCA a few issues ago. I am litte excited to
have talked to her and to find so much that there was to say and
such little time. Anyhow, among the topics talked about at high speed
detail the question of differntiating MUDS type environments and
that virtual world from the virtual world of the x-lists (like
XMCA) where the degree of ambiguity of doing and being in my view
is un-existant as it is in a MUD environment (i.e, perhaps that
there is social self on-line but basically everyone is truthful
about their identity -at least how to communicate other wise?).
Second, point of interest was how she discussed the desire to make
the virtual world and the real world permeable. The example given
was of two people who met on-line and then dated eachother in real
life. To me that covers all the reflexive and laboratory work
that gets done here for example and many other examples which are
talked about in the MCA article (i.e.; exploring humanity and
important questions on-line with the hope that what is learnt and
gleaned can carry over to the real world). Finally, she made a
distinction between the isntrumental computer and the subjective
computer (and there was no time for me to get an example of the
subjective computer... so now I am left with a burning question!
All for now,
Francoise Francoise Herrmann fherrmann who-is-at igc.org