
We then conjectured that the real demonstration of godhood and god-like ability might be creation, and that the ultimate act of godhood might be the creation of communities. Of course, the community you create can be very limiting. The best communities are always based on individuals and, as the Oracle of Delphi admonished "Know thyself and thou wilt know the Universe and the Gods."
Establishing community, entering and leaving community, takes time and effort. No wonder people are willing to establish virtual connections with people they've never had physical contact with. It takes less time and it's safer. You don't have to get out of your car. The more connected we are virtually the less connected we tend to be physically. When someone's an email or phone call away and it takes much less effort, what's the point in meeting with them in reality?But I don't think we're psychologically mature enough as a species to recognize the difference between cyber- and physical-relationships. The normal boundaries and limits, the psychic and physical walls we place around ourselves for our own and others' protection, don't migrate easily between virtual and real worlds. Second Life is starting to experience real world crime and cyber-adultery is on the rise (I don't mean "pornography", I mean people going to a virtual world so their avatars can fraternize (how's that for an euphemism?)).
(more to follow)
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- The Curse of Social Networks
- Email Bankruptcy blog posts
- The Eventing Yourself Blog arc
- Going Off the Grid
- The MediaFree and Gridless arc
- MediaFreeZones
- Proof I'm a Luddite
- Unplugging... why is it so hard?
- Voluntary Simplification blog posts
- IMedia Brand Summit on 9-12 Sept 07
- XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
- DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.



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