Secondlifelike

I’ve been exploring Second Life for a teaching project at Aberdeen. There are a staggering number of good and helpful people and resources out there, and it would be immoral not to record them as I encounter them.

This is a very thoughtful essay by Diane Carr of the London Knowledge Lab on adapting to Second Life as a teaching environment.

NPRIL (see the blogroll o’er yonder) is a wonderful demonstration of what new things a virtual environment can offer.

Sadly, I have not yet encountered a sustained critique, in the vein of political ecology, of Second Life. The underlying trans-Ayn-Randy capitalism is depressing in the extreme: I know of no way to link, say, a farmers’ co-operative to economic practices within Second Life. It’s funny how the internet community has, as one of its underlying social behaviours, the assumption that everything should be a commodity. Taussig would be thrilled.