I am still a newbie in the world of Second Life, but it hasn’t taken long for me to realize the almost overwhelming potential for the concept behind it. I’ve only recently moved on from collecting Linden (the virtual currency of SL) from the branches of the ever popular “Wolfhaven Money Tree.” Now that I’ve discovered the world of Zyngo I needn’t really bother with teleporting from tree to tree in hopes of finding one or two Linden that have escaped the view of throngs of my fellow tree pickers. Even better still, with a few of the projects I’m working on, Zyngo may soon become obsolete for me too as I will begin to earn my Linden by providing a service rather than playing a game. Don’t worry, if you’re lost right now I will explain.
Second Life is the creation of Linden Lab, which is itself the creation of an American businessman named Philip Rosedale. Within SL users can do virtually anything that they can do in the real world—including buying and selling real estate, holding a job, gambling, dancing, and dating—to name just a few of the more popular pursuits in this vast, virtual world. Incidentally, what you and I call the “Real World,” SL fanatics refer to as the “Old World.” Indeed, as tempting as it may be to call Second Life a game, the moniker really doesn’t fit the enormity of the SL metaverse.
Mr. Rosedale’s words on the subject of his aim with creating Second Life:
“I’m not building a game. I’m building a new continent.”
And he’s done just that, plus so much more. Sure, there are elements of gaming inherent in the SL metaverse and there are even spots where you can go specifically for gaming. But there is no overarching goal, no set mission parameters. The 40-60,000 people who are logged into SL at any given time aren’t logging in to kill boss monsters, collect points, or save the princess—though there may in fact be places within SL where those things can be done. Still, my father would probably consider the whole thing to be a giant pursuit in wasting leisure time, something he would rather accomplish by swinging a stick at a little white ball on the golf course.
Somewhat ironically however, it was talking with him a few nights ago about global economies and the transmogrification of production/distribution in our modern world that really got me to thinking about the astounding implications of SL. My father, a retired elementary school principal here in Western Colorado, is currently reading a book called The Post-American World. This was the topic that we were discussing when I asked him what he felt, being the die hard conservative and poster boy for the capitalist free market that he so proudly is, about globalization. He said that he thought it was a good thing, and I concurred.
I used this as entrée to the topic of SL. It took some time to convince the grade school educator that I wasn’t recruiting him for an online game. In fact, I wasn’t recruiting him at all. What I really wanted to do was to show him that there was already a successful model for an economy without borders where absolutely anybody with a good idea could design, produce, and put up for sale quite literally anything. Indeed, one might consider SL to be the personification of a perfectly equal market, where there are no such things as corporate giants, nor are there any little guys—not really anyway. Equal footing is what SL does best, and it delivers with all the might of a juggernaut.
I’ve written before about a technological coalescence that I like to refer to as the “One Machine.” The OM is akin to the ever popular replicator of Star Trek origin. While I came up with the idea of the OM after reading articles in Popular Science and Scientific American about related research being conducted at universities around the world, I do not claim to be the first to have done so. In fact, if anybody deserves credit I would think it’s probably Gene Roddenberry. It doesn’t really matter much who creates it though, the very idea of an OM is to obliterate borders and antiquate the notion of a supply and demand economy. No one person can lay claim to ownership of everything—a major prerequisite for anyone interested in ownership of the OM.
In home, on demand manufacturing is essentially what we’re talking about here. Never again would you have to rely on corporate product lines for procuring what you need and want. Instead, the sky would be the limit. Say you come up with a way to improve a product. You would be able to design, produce, test, and manufacture the item right there your own living room, or office, or garage, etc. If it worked, you could turn around and sell the blueprints to the item via the Internet (if it’s still called that in the future) so that literally everyone in the world would have the option of purchasing and using it.
Economy would move away from product driven business all together, whittling the transference of “wealth” (a concept that would also be revamped by the OM) down to two primary areas: 1) natural resources to include the entire periodic table; 2) blueprints and/or recipes for products that will literally be manufactured right there in the end user’s home (or local neighborhood for larger items such as vehicles). It’s an astounding concept, to be sure. It’s also one that I’ve been kicking around in my head for some time now. But clearly, I’ve not been alone.
Enter Second Life, and the creative mind. Remember what I said above about there being no overarching goal or mission set for SL? Well, this is perhaps it’s most important feature. Think of SL as the Jeet Kune Do of virtual economy—actually, don’t stop there. Think of it as the JKD of all economies; the singularity for economy in general. SL takes my idea of the One Machine, an item that gives equal footing to anybody with the time to think of something new, and makes it absolutely real in the here and now. No waiting for technology to catch up with the front lines of conceptual idealism is necessary. Just as JKD was to martial arts, the SL economy is the formless form of business. (Have I lost you yet with the esoteric gibberish? No? Good, read on.)
SL can take on whatever shape you wish. If you want a place to log in and sit down with friends for a graphically enhanced phone call (because SL uses Skype to allow for open, verbal communication—even with folks who don’t have SL)—Second Life can become that for you. Want a place to tinker with architecture while avoiding the inherently massive costs of building? SL can be that too. Sure, SL can be a place to go for recreational gaming pursuits, but to sum the metaverse up in such a narrow sense is something along the lines of a travesty.
It took some time to convince my father that there was more to SL than a game. I tried to briefly describe my One Machine to him, being that he too is an avid Star Trek fan, but all I got for my effort was the look of a disbeliever and the all too dismissive, ” Sure. Okay.” Spotting his doubt with the ease of locating the letter “A” in the alphabet, I moved on to compare the OM with SL. The underlying concepts are precisely the same. We are moving, as a society, toward instant, on-demand fulfillment of quite literally every need and/or want that we might have at any given moment. Instant fulfillment of all needs is on the horizon.
Though there is no One Machine or other tangible mechanism involved, within Second Life you can design, “manufacture,” and make for sale absolutely anything that your mind is capable of dreaming up. This is no exaggeration either. Have an idea for an improved banana hanger? Create it! Then, sell it to people. Think you can design a better bike than the guys from Orange County Choppers? Then do it, and may it make you rich! But here is the sticking point for most folks, including my father. How can a “game” make you rich in real life?
Within SL the currency of affluence is the Linden Dollar. These can be purchased for real money on the Linden Exchange, at a rate of roughly L$230/$1. Just as you can deposit Linden into your SL account using the exchange, so too can you withdraw funds—straight to your PayPal account. There are people who make good money doing this. In fact, Second Life is credited with creating the first real world millionaire (Anshe Chung) to earn their entire fortune within the confines of a virtual world. But she’s not alone.
According to the SL website there are tens of thousands of people who generate a positive cash flow entirely inside of the Second Life metaverse. Some people do this by dabbling in virtual real estate, others by providing services, and still more by way of designing and selling virtual products. Linden Labs offers the following as a partial list of means by which SL users create positive revenue streams:
party and wedding planner
pet manufacturer
tattooist
nightclub owner
automotive manufacturer
fashion designer
aerospace engineer
custom avatar designer
jewelry maker
architect
XML coder
freelance scripter
game developer
fine artist
machinima set designer
tour guide
dancer
musician
custom animation creator
theme park developer
real estate speculator
vacation resort owner
advertiser
bodyguard
magazine
publisher
private detective
writer
gamer
landscaper
publicist
special effects designer
gunsmith
hug maker
And the list goes on. Indeed, the SL economy is the formless form—a free market on speed. In my first week on SL I bought up a handful of tiny pieces of land in hopes of following in Anshe’s footsteps. In that same week I converted two pieces of land that I bought for L$99 each into a single piece of land (because fighting advertisers who use these small plots for billboards is all the rage in SL) and then resold it for L$555. That’s a whopping profit margin of 280%! Granted I’ve not been able to replicate such a deal since, but it was a very promising start for me.
From there I moved on to the services industry. Because Second Life users are so vehemently opposed to “ad farms”—blocks of land that are divvied up into the smallest allowable plot size (16m square) and then plastered with unsightly billboards—I decided that there had to be an environmentally friendlier way to go about offering ad space. Before long I had created my very first product and begun to take steps towards offering said product up as a rental, providing advertisers with a service that would have no lasting impact on the SL landscape while simultaneously improving the market saturation that clients get for their advertising dollar (Linden). Watch the video below to see what I mean.
I won’t likely be getting rich any time soon, but then that’s not the point. I suppose that the possibility exists for my advertising drone blimps to become all the rage and thus kick start my Linden influx. But the odds are more in favor of an outcome that will have me tweaking my ideas and rebuilding my creations until I find a product or service that will truly fill a need. Just as is true in the free market environment of America in the “real world,” Second Life business is all about who can come up with the better mouse trap.
On a related note, there are some “real world” businesses with a presence in the SL metaverse. Some of my favorites are the bookstores, like Bantam Dell, mostly because I’m always looking for new ways to market my own book. With that in mind I’ve recently built a Greek-ish sort of building on a small piece of land that I own, and have decorated it in a very Spartan theme (in that it sports minimal amenities). There are three Persian rugs on the polished marble floor, chairs to relax on, and a table upon which sits a copy of my book. Actually, the book hovers above the table and rotates slowly to allow for a better view from all directions. I’ve even gone and added a Zyngo Wyld! machine. Come for the book, stay for the Zyngo!
Click to enlarge.
Visitors can buy a copy of the book for L$5, though it isn’t a complete edition—yet. Presently the book contains two note cards. On the first is a link to a website where they can download the first chapter for free. On the second is a link to my publisher’s website where they can buy a complete copy of their own. I do have an e-book edition for Five Years in Hawaii, which I could include in the sale of the digital edition in SL, but I’d have to raise the in-world price of the book to over L$1200 in order to avoid a pricing conflict with my publisher. It’s something to consider, for sure.
Anyway, the point that I’m getting at is that the formless form of the SL economy is a wonderfully promising model for the sort of economy that I believe this world is headed for. I know that the technology exists to make the OM real, though some of it is in the embryonic stages of life. The problem that we face out here in the “Real World” however, is that the transition from capitalist free market economy to in home, on demand manufacturing would require one major, missing link: a way for the implementation of the OM to make somebody rich. Sadly, the machine that would bring instant gratification to even the greediest of people, will likely be blocked by the greed of those who see it as an end to their era. For now, we must save such idealism for the Second Life metaverse.
Yay! My memoir just hit Amazon in both paperback and hardcover editions! If you look closely you’ll see that I am offering a special deal through my own Amazon Seller account. If you order from me through Amazon you’ll get an autographed card or bookmark, shipped directly from me to you! The book will ship from my publisher (Lulu).
Just look over to the right of this post, second column from the right. Click on “Best Price” to go straight to the page that offers the above mentioned autograph package. It’s that simple!
Okay, call me a nerd. I’ve given SecondLife a second chance (as prior to upgrading my video card a few months ago I was unable to run the software.) I must say, I’m quite impressed.
I’ve opened up a little shop in the Hewes District of SL which feels very much to me like a Sharper Image sort of store, only much smaller. I have a parrot greeter, a giant fish tank that has a built in, flip down TV monitor (on which will be playing a trailer for my book very soon), an ATM, four South Park novelty avatars for sale, and one final, special little product.
Click to enlarge.
Available for sale in my store, JMK’s Oddities and Gouge, is a special promotional pack for my book Five Years in Hawaii! That’s right, for just a few Lindens (the fake money used in SL) you can buy a virtual copy of my book that includes access to a free chapter from the book and gives a link for more information about the book. I’m particularly proud of this accomplishment. You can see my book hovering in the back of my store as circled in red in the image above.
Cool, huh!? I plan to do much more when I get my hands on some of my own land. I hope to see you on SL soon! I resisted for a long time but now I think it has quite a lot of potential.
So here it is. In the past, I’ve heard a good number of people being casually dismissive of the military. You don’t see it so much these days, what with the patriotic frenzy that GWB’s color coded threat level indicators have given us in the post 9/11 era. But before all of that, there was a sort of commonly accepted disdain for the military mind.
I never really understood it as a child. My biological father was a veteran of Vietnam. Growing up I always had the utmost respect for, and was truly even in awe of, the folks who served in our nation’s uniform. I’d watch movies like Where Eagles Dare and Tora! Tora! Tora! as a child and think about how proud I would be to follow in such proud footsteps.
While in the military I met some very bright individuals. I also met some severely under-informed fools. But never did I find a real reason to cast a negative hue upon the broader image of the military that had been so carefully burned into my mind from childhood. That is, at least, not until now.
As part of promoting my book I’ve been taking a more active roll in the military groups found at MySpace. A recent bit of discourse in one of those groups left me scratching my head, but now I think I understand where people may get their poor impressions of the U.S. Military—from online military communities. If there are other forums, message boards, or what have you where “conversations” similar to the one I just had take place with any regularity, it’s no small wonder that some negative sentiment towards the military exists.
Because my book is about the military, I figured that would be a good starting point for locating informed readers capable of providing reliable and accurate feedback. I wouldn’t, for instance, have approached the Southwestern Peanut Growers Association for help with my Navy book. Or would I? Perhaps, according to the (ill-)logic of these brilliant, and oh so humble, military minds.
You can read the whole discussion for yourself at the link above, or you can just scan the summary below:
ME) “Hi! I’m Justin. I have written a book about my time in the Navy. I’m having a contest where you can win a free copy.”
GROUP MOD) “[Ape sounds...] Five whole years. Good bars, Hawaii. [Grunting noises.] Me want movie.”
ME) “I’m sorry, come again? Just so you know, I did this, this, and this while I was in the Navy. If that doesn’t interest you, fine. Someone else might like it.”
GROUP MOD) “[Farting sound.] Canned meat gives me gas. I’m tired from two years of picking SPAM off of bony children. I am much smarter than a monkey. [Peels a banana and farts again.]“
pause…
“Me found BOLD key! [Grunting noises.]“
pause…
“[Tears in eyes.] I want to be your dad. I was in the military. I’m old now. [Adjusts his dentures. Smacking sounds.] I got injured and quit. Dammit. [Pulls two six guns off his hips and shoots around the room while dancing like Yosemite Sam. Spits on barrels to cool them before re-holstering.]“
pause…
“Thanks for serving, but you’re an asshole. [Picks out a wedgie.] Your life is boring compared to my own. I hate people under 50. [Scratches his balls.]“
pause…
“Welcome to the group. Go away.”
ME) “Wow. You’re an asshole with a dwarf complex. You acted as if I was clueless about the subject, so I provided my experience as my credentials. I never laid claim to being better than anyone, but when someone questions my integrity I make a habit of responding. By the way, your groups welcome message says ‘[Post anything and everything related to military, police, or firefighters]‘ so, that’s what I did. I apologize for following your own rules. You have been taken off my Christmas list.”
GROUP MOD) “[Whining sound. Nose running. Lip caked in snot.] Please leave, I’m having a bowel movement.”
GROUP MEMBER 1) “That was kind of funny.”
GROUP MEMBER 2) “Yeah. And foolish.”
GROUP MEMBER 3) “Even though you just quoted the group guidelines and proved that you were following our rules, I’m going to squawk like a parrot and repeat some nonsensical words to you. You didn’t read the rules. Ha! [Engorges a rather large cracker without chewing.]“
ME) “Wait a minute. Again, I only did what your groups introductory paragraph told me to do. There are a lot of members to this group and, even though you have no interest in my story, there may be others who will. Thanks for your time. Be sure to vote liberal!”
GROUP MEMBER 3) “Dude, I’m sooooo much older than you! Like, wow! Gross! You speak good words? Like, real English and stuff? That’s so incredibly boring. Loser!“
GROUP MEMBER 4) “One time, I saw a squirrel save a submarine from a terrorist plot to sell them more magazines than they needed. It was sooooo boring.”
ME) “[Quoting Reno 911!: Miami] I’d like to know where you are at all times so I can avoid you. That would be nice.”
pause…
“I was only defending myself.”
GROUP MOD) “Take this bitch! [Cat slaps me.] I can make my text redder, bigger, and more ignorant than yours! Aha! [Leans in and whispers in my ear.] Hey, wanna “seal the deal?“
awkward pause…
“By the way, nobody from ’round these here parts has no lovin’ in their hearts for no garsh dang English teacher whatzit nor not. Now if you’ll excuse me I was watching Alicia Silverstein in that movie where she’s all sexy and stuff. I just bought a new bottle of lotion, too. [Low growling sounds followed by an erie chuckle.]“
GROUP MEMBER 5) “This is kind of ridiculous guys.”
GROUP MEMBER 6) “I got there first! Na na na na na na!”
GROUP MOD 2) “[Monkey calls.] Ooga, boogah! Me no like, go way! Someone read me a bedtime story once about boats and now I know how they work. I know now that I have to break up with my boyfriend. [Sobs.]“
GROUP MOD) “Yeehaw! [Slaps his boots to knock loose a persistent piece of dung.]“
GROUP MEMBER 7) “I wasn’t part of the original discussion, but here’s my opinion anyway. Books are for dumb people. Reading is a waste of time, especially since I’ve already done everything that there is to do in the entire world. Foolish mortal.”
GROUP MEMBER #8) “[Indiscernible.]“
Anyway, you get the idea. I did not approach those people with the intent of being an asshole to them. I have written and published a military book. Does it seem odd that I might expect to find some interested readers in the military community? I wasn’t even after sales, directly. I mean no businessman turns down a legitimate sale, don’t get me wrong. But I was listing the instructions to enter for a free copy of the book. How, precisely, that is intrusive or somehow resource consuming (in reference to the SPAM accusation) is beyond me.
I do not see myself as above anyone. I didn’t list my contest in that group because I wanted everyone to see how superior I am to them. I posted there because I trusted their opinions, being that they are my peers, and I hoped to get some honest feedback. Instead what I got was a lot of chest beating and saber rattling. It’s sad that such folks exist, but let me be the first to defend the wider military community.
While there are some fools such as these lurking about in this world, be certain that they are a minority. Even though they have a tendency to focus their voices in what seem to be large numbers, it is usually out of desperation for the fact that their message is so small when compared to the voice of reason. Extremists from any walk of life are an unwanted burden upon the already taught strings of social harmony. It is our job to make sure that their voice is always drowned out with the echoes of truth and nature.
Fictitious insomuch as I will be writing fiction, short fiction to be exact. I’ve already had way too much time to finish my first novel and the damn thing is still sitting at 3 chapters long. Why? Well, because the third chapter that I wrote was so corny, so BAD in it’s attempt at police procedure, that I subconsciously chose to abandon it. At least, that’s my theory.
Last night I spent a few minutes as a caller to a fairly popular Internet talk radio show called The Odd Mind. Wednesday is their open mic night, so I was just there for lack of anything better to do. I got a short plug for my book out of it though, and I managed to plug a really good book called Where Hell Freezes Over, so it wasn’t all for naught.
One thing that I quickly realized while listening and talking with the folks at The Odd Mind was that I simply am not writing enough fiction to harbor an honest hope of breaking into that genre. With this blog, and with my book Five Years in Hawaii I’ve been pretty focused on nonfiction topics and related issues. As a result, I’ve done very little fiction writing. It’s time now for that to change.
Because my three ugly little chapters have been sitting in the silicon of my computer for almost a year now, I’ve decided to move on. I still intend to write that story, but I will start over from scratch. In order to make sure that my new attempt doesn’t go the same way as my old one, I’m going to do some writing exercises, if you will.
What this means to you, my brilliant readers, is that I am going to start a series of short stories to develop my characters as they would have existed before the opening of my novel. I will publish these short stories here on my blog, under the heading of Short Fiction. I haven’t decided how often this will happen, or if I really even want to box myself into a schedule (such as one per week), but rest assured it will happen.
Who knows, maybe I’ll garner a meager following for my characters prior to writing the full deal in novel form. This would help with sales later on, for sure, but it would also allow me to get feedback from potential readers before going to press. I’m fairly excited about this!
And so, there you have it. I will be publishing short bits of fiction here on my blog that will involve the characters and settings that will be found in my first novel. These stories will be a sort of fusion between MilFi and SciFi. The plots will deal with government, military, and international espionage—but the vehicles for telling the story will center around high tech gadgetry and technological wizardry.
I hope to see you all on the forthcoming Short Fiction pages in the very near future! Until then, thank you for your time!
