3-D Blogger

Turtles All the Way Down

I made a new group in Second Life called "Council on Virtual Relations". Working draft charter is about discussing international relations and ways in which Second Life could be useful, and also the intersection of real-life and virtual world policies. In trying to envisage a logo for the group, a turtle popped into my mind for some reason and I went Googling around to dredge up half-remembered information about turtles holding up the world and such.

It turns out there is an apocryphal story sometimes attributed to Bertrand Russell, that supposedly after he gave his lecture about "Why I am Not A Christian," and referenced the Hindu belief that the world rested on elephants, and the elephants on a tortoise, but there was nothing underneath the turtle, an Indian woman objected, and said, "But there are turtles all the way down."

I happen to think that there is something rather like "turtles all the way down" but it's also useful to stop at the world-bearing image and imagine that all of us have to behave like world-holders in various ways, and that's what holds up the world (hence the group title "World-Holders"). The turtle is also a good symbol for the concave shell symbolizing the heaven, and the squat feet on earth. And his amphibian nature, whereby he can survive on both land and water, is a reference to the transitions between virtuality and real life.

Happy New Year!

Second Life is an online 3-D streaming virtual world where you can do just about anything. Unlike games you may have heard of such as World of Warcraft, Second Life is open-ended and has no objective or game.

You can use the world to hold meetings with friends and colleagues in a compelling way to communicate, prototype, share content, screen films or show pictures, create and store objects, brainstorm -- and save money on travel.

Why would you need a Second Life if you already have a first life and don't want to be one of those people who "have no lives"?  Well, some people use Second Life to "have a life" if they don't have one, and others use it to enhance their lives with creative potential.

Did you know that there are hundreds of universities in Second Life? Classes in architecture, digital arts, literature, and science? Numerous non-profits holding strategizing conferences and fund-raising. Companies doing training and prototypes for business.