Measuring Virtual Age
Today is Day 4 of the Big Bad Blogger Challenge 2010.
Today’s Topic: Age
Age (along with many of the other confines of the physical world such as race, religion, sex, etc.) becomes a very interesting topic when examined in virtual space. Where does our physical age end and our virtual age begin? How do we even define our virtual age? Is our virtual age, the age we “act” in world? How old our avatar appears to look? How about the age since our avatar first rezzed into the space?
It seems that to define virtual age we have to look at several dimensions:
1. Physical Age
2. Mental Age
3. Apparent Age (look)
4. Rendered Age
In virtual space, where we can be any age (not to mention have/create/be anything we can imagine) what age do you want to be?
Second Life creator Philip Rosedale once described SL as “The Sum of All Dreams.” He then went on to joke that based on SL, the average of all dreams is Malibu. I guess that might fit with my perception of how old most avatars look – too young for their age. I rarely every see a wrinkled, aged avatar. No judgments though when you consider that in Second Life, most of us do feel like we are dreaming, or imagining into fruition the dreams of our childhood. The virtual space is like an evolution of consciousness, which itself is just in its infancy. So why then should we emotionally feel any different when we are exploring this new world, than we once did with the physical world when we are a child? Through our virtual eyes, this virtual space can be new and magical.
In fact, I challenge you to really watch a child. Watch them explore and examine. Everything is so engaging, so funny, so stimulating, so gratifying. They focus so intently like nothing else around them matters. They live in the moment. This new virtual space can also be a similar experience.
Many of us as adults lose this stimulating curiosity, and become paralyzed by our urge to over analyze everything. Virtual worlds provide us with the opportunity to transcend the constraints of the physical world (including age) and manifest the dreams of our infinite self. The journey is only as confined as you are.
