Endless Self-Reinvention in Virtual Worlds

HASTAC Leader Ruzena Bajcsy's tele-immersion lab is featured on BBC's Visions of the Future. You'll find the link to the YouTube segment below. The BBC commentator talks about the possibilities of next-gen tele-immersion for making f2f meetings obsolete (or at least reduced) and also asks questions about what happens if tele-immersion or participation in virtual worlds such as Second Life starts diminishing f2f contact, so that people lead more of their lives in virtual enviroments, endlessly reinventing themselves. I'm fascinated about what future technologies will hold, and also skeptical about how much they will or will not alter the persistent structures of everyday life. It would take a book, not a brief blog posting, to address this issue. But here's one insight. I went to a basketball game (f2f) yesterday with my friend Ce (a friend AND a Facebook "Friend"). I asked how her son Jonathan is adjusting to his new school. It sounds like he's doing great at wrestling (definitely f2f--or maybe f2m, face-to-mat!) and has lots of friends that he hangs out with mostly online and virtually. Now I'm blogging about this conversation. In a few moments I'll write Ce on Facebook to say how great it was to see her. I also spotted a mutual friend across the court at the game and I owe him an email so I'll be sending that off too. And, since it is a gorgeous day, I'll email another friend, Priscilla, and see if she'd like to go for a walk in the woods. Everyday life. Whenever I hear prognostications about some future where everything is virtual, whenever I hear about all the things that will either be revolutionaized or imperiled by the coming brave new world, I wonder about the variety and complexity of the present. Is my world virtual, actual, f2f? You tell me . . .