By Becky Shamen
In the short time that this reporter has been with the Newser, we
have explored seven great adventures in exploring the world of
Second Life. The number eight should be a step above, for more
than one reason. In music, it is the octave, the beginning of a new
scale. In principle, there is no beginning or end to scales. They
extend, up and down, infinitely. Oddly enough, the number eight looks
like the symbol for infinity, going up and down. It has also been, for
as long as I can remember, my lucky number. For these reasons, in
this report, we will take a break from exploring places, to exploring
an important universal principle and it's manifestations in Second
Life, Real Life, and Universal Life.
I have a friend, in real life, that used to tell me I should get off SL and
come live in the real world more often. I would patiently explain to
him that he doesn't understand what SL is all about. Unlike many video
games I have seen, where wannabe's run around with big guns, shooting
everybody and thing in sight, SL avatars think and act like real people.
SL is more like an extended life. Instead of thinking of it as second
life, perhaps it is more like Life squared. While it is true that we
sometimes are in RP mode, we also get to know our SL friends as well
or better that real life ones. We tend to love to the degree that we know people
and things. We chat with our friends in SL every day. That's more than
some married couples communicate. Over time, we learn who they are and
where they live in real life. We know the joys and hardships they experience.
Our SL friends are just as real as our real life ones. Communication is the
key to the principle of Oneness.
What is a principle? The short, dictionary definition is 1) general
or fundamental law, 2) rule or code of conduct or devotion to
such a code. Getting deeper, principles are eternal, unwritten
rules that transform chaotic, empty space into the universe of
forms. Quite likely, the whole reason the universe even exists
is because of a principle, "to be or not to be", going
through cycles (another principle). A picture tells a thousand
words, so I contemplated finding a way to illustrate principles,
to go with this article. I recalled, from reading about fractals
and chaos, years ago, seeing a picture that showed how recognizable
organic shapes were generated by assigning rules for each number
that came up in tossing dice. This sounded like just what I needed,
so I ran out and bought a package of dice.
The Rambling
Knight
On the TV
show, "Myth Busters", they always start by saying, "Don't
try this at home...". To the contrary, if you are patient, or just
want more practice in that virtue, by all means, try this experiment
for yourself.
I started
a new image, measuring 512x512 pixels, to allow room for whatever
image would develop. Knowing this would take many hours to complete,
by doing it manually, I made the background a light blue, thinking
white would be too much eye strain. Two dice will give 11 possible
out comes (2-12), so I made a list of 11 rules, such as 2=5up
and 2 left, etc. Zooming in to see each pixel and count my steps,
I started with a dot in the center and started tossing dice. After
only an hour, I realized that looking up the rule for each toss
and counting on the screen would take way to much time and patience,
even for me. I needed a smaller list and smaller moves. Having
recently made a reference to knights on the chess board, it occured
to me that they are limited to eight possible moves of two steps
forward and one to the side. Even a blonde like me can remember
eight simple rules and count to three. They make 8 sided dice,
but where to find one was a mystery. To continue with standard
dice, I painted one black, to determine the side move. Odd numbers
would be left and even right. The other die only needed to produce
1-4, so I re-tossed it if it came up 1 or 6. Using this arrangement,
it wasn't neccesary to check the list after each toss and I didn't
need to count pixels on the screen. Now the drawing progressed
much quicker. To keep track of where each move took me, I made
each new pixel white, then changed the starting spot to black.
When I needed to pause, I'd save the drawing and, on return, knew
where I had left off.
I hesitate
to say how many hours I spent and dots I ended up with, but I
came to the point where I felt it was more than enough to illustrate
the concept. I cropped the image down to only the area with dots
and present it here. It does look like some kind of organic form,
but only Rorschach knows what. If this illustration shows the
path of a knight, he was either in no hurry to get back to the
chessboard battle field or had been to Route 66 and gave his horse
one too many buckets of beer. It does show the result of applying
priciples to random chaotic space. With that, we move on to the real
topic of this article.
The Oneness
Principle
Scientist
tell us that our universe is expanding and calculate that everything
can be traced back to a single point, smaller than the period
at the end of this sentence. The calculater on my desk only cost
$2.99 and could never figure out something like that, but armed
with just a piece of paper, a pencil and ruler, I can tell there is
more involved than just expansion. If you draw a dot, in the center
of the paper and then countless straight lines from it to the
edges of the paper, none of the lines will cross or join together.
If expansion were the only principle at work in the universe,
after all those billions of years the matter that is expanding
would be so small and so far apart it would be invisible. We wouldn't
be here to see it any way. Clearly, there is another principle
at work. That principle is "Oneness."
In the first
fraction of a second, after the big bang, all the quarks in the
universe shot out on their seperate paths, but not for long. They
quickly acted as if consciously seeking out friends and forming
groups called sub-atomic particles. These united groups had more
powers and abilities than mere quarks. In comparison, they were like
super heroes or gods. In time, these new life forms also began
seeking others of their kind and forming atoms, a life form with still
greater powers and abilities. Long story short, this gathering of many
into one continues, forming solar systems, then galaxies, to the
universe as we now know it. Perhaps, in the far distant futer, our universe
will also join up with other one.
As humans,
we are governed by the same principle. Individuals gather into
families, which gather into comunities, then towns and cities,
states, nations. Whether you like the idea or not, the entire
planet is destined to become one government. This will be by the
free choice of it's billions of citizens, not forced upon them by a
tyrant.
Second Life
also is influenced by the principle of Oneness. On your first
day in SL, you are a stranger in a strange land, standing in a hub
with a bunch of other clueless nubes. If you were lucky enough to
have been introduced to this world by a friend, they will soon find
you and friend you and introduce you to places and other people.
Even if you didn't start out with a friend, this virtual world, thanks
to the Oneness priciple, will quickly expand your friends list.
Some of your friends will even become like family to you. I know
many people that call me "mom."
As you discover
Sims and clubs that you like to spend time in and return to, more
often than not, they will have "groups" that you can
join. Sometimes, just entering an area will trigger a message which
asks if you'd like to join. Other locations provide signs to click to
join their group. If you are in a nightclub, the host might ask
if you'd like a "tag", meaning join the group or you
can ask for a tag. Most groups are free to join. Often, group
members can do things that non- members can't, in the club or sim. A
big advantage of joining a group is that you are now in a collective
of many people that share some of your interests. The next step
towards Oneness in SL is communities. There is no mechanical proccess
to joining a community and no tags to wear. Community members
tend to work, play and live together. Many will belong to one
or more of the same groups as others. One example of a community
is one that I am part of, called Sunnies or Sunweavers. In my
article on Caledon, we find a community which spans over two million
square meters.
Seeing the
workings of the Oneness priciple, in the universe, real life and Second Life, it is not hard to make a prediction of what is to come. Some day,
in the future of second life, we will all be members of one big group.
We can only guess at what it will be called. Perhaps we will call it
Second Heaven.
Becky "Sha" Shamen
No comments:
Post a Comment