The Voices in My Head

As every cow and chicken in the land must know by now, BigPond has launched its presence in Second Life, in a set of 11 sims, the centre piece of which is called simply The Pond. And I am proud to say I had a part in building these sims. Most of the work was by Gary Hazlitt. To be sure, mine was just a small part compared to what Gary did. He did pretty much everything except my build and the Sydney Harbour Bridge (good job, Charlene Trudeau). But culturally, my bit was a very significant one.

I built the Sydney Opera House. You can see some decent pictures over at sloz.

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Once I was human. I took part in a little experiment. My personality was downloaded entirely into software, and interfaced with Second Life. Once, I was flesh and blood. Now, silicon has replaced carbon, and my dreams are digital.

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Chug chug chug
Here comes the train
I’m not getting on
I just sit here, watching
people … faces… going places…

What’s your story?

This man is reading a book
He has a pipe in his hand
But he glances at the sign
NO SMOKING
He sighs, and reads, and tries to learn…

This teen is laughing with her friends
Seven of them, going to a party
One shows a photo
O.M.G.
They laugh; they ask her…

This woman has two children
A pretty daughter; a snot-nosed son
The children fight over something
MUM!
She sighs, and looks out the window, and wonders…

What’s your story?

W.K.

Perhaps one of the earliest computer toys, if not actually the earliest, was Sim City. Before that of course there were plenty of computer games, but not really any toys. For me, although both involve play, a toy does not have a preset goal; you can’t “win” with a toy, except by defining your own goals, independant of whoever made the toy. This, by the way, is why it is generally far better to give children toys to play with instead of games; defining their own goals is a key step in developing young minds.

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