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Before the internet, there was only the computer, large ones that take up a whole room. The computer then was seen only as a tool, and then a few years later there was the personal computer which made it more accessible and more interactive. The PC was a kind of evolutionary step which enabled us to have wider relationships. But these relationships did not appear yet until PCs started to become interconnected. This is where internet comes in.
At first it was only a military tool, used by the States to connect their military branches and easily share their data. That was until someone saw the commercial value and the great potential of the net. In the article of Sherry Turkle, she described a new world where we have started to populate over the years with several mirrors of ourselves. The cyberspace is exactly that strange new world people have inhabited with the help of technology like the personal computer. With our lives now inside the screen and our personal selves cannot be determined by the other end then the internet, we gain the ability to recreate ourselves virtually in the new world.
We now have the ability to create characters will may or may not reflect our own identity. With MUD or multi user domains the characters we play can even have emotions that can be conveyed to a large number of other players residing in the cyber world. Through the interactions we have with players around the world, our real life personas, Turkle pointed out, go to sleep and our characters materialize inside the virtual domain. Players often border between real life (RL), a term coined by several MUD enthusiast and their cyber worlds and as a result there are several analogies that will work for this topic. Lets take Play by Email (PBeM) as an example; this will be discussed further later on. The author is the player in cyber world and the interaction in the game is in the form of writing and the computer is the converter of simple words into the characters actions, thoughts and feelings.
Anonymity is a window to a new character. The internet also gives a person a chance to explore his other desires. He may be a man in RL but plays a woman in the game. She maybe a lawyer but plays a bartender. We often reach the point that we forget to really know the person on the other side of the screen but intimately know his cyber persona. Of course our cyber identity does not end at one point in cyber space.
In recent years there has been an increase of programs that allow us to talk to our cyber friends. IRC or internet relay chat was one of the hottest place in cyberspace because it imitated a tavern or bar where people mingle and chat. With the desire for a much more personal interaction entered the person to person chat which ICQ (I SEEK YOU) pioneered. Here, the computer informs us that a friend of ours is online and available. Microsoft Messenger (MSN) built on the ICQ concept and furthered it with features like Application Sharing where two people can share a computer program or Whiteboard for company meetings that need a cyber black board. Such automation's or advances in the programs that have affected the artificial intelligence of programs make it more difficult for us to differentiate what is real from an automaton.
With this shift to a culture of simulations, we have developed simulations for everything. A simulated love affair, simulated plane fight where we are the pilots, simulated plane crashes where our simulated selves fly through the windshield. As part of this culture of simulation, we have taken comfort in dealing with the symbol of reality. We have learned to take things at interface value no longer willing to deal with the details.
Another aspect of this shift is in seeing human aspects have been computerized. An example Turkle used on this is the human brain being compared to a computer. We have begun rethinking the identity of human and machine. The last point is that we have sought out the subjective computer. We have started to turn to computers for experiences and seek it out as an intimate machine where we can explore simulations. Ive been an avid computer fan even before Bill Gates came up with Windows and coupled with my desire to be a policeman, I managed to live out my dream with Police Quest.
In this game, the player get to play as Sonny Bonds a patrol man who serves and protects in Lytton, a city terrorized by the Death Angel. Of course, after finishing the game there wasnt much more to do, no one else to interact with except the primitive programming of the game which didnt adapt like the games today. In 1995, I got my first taste of the internet and slowly realized the potential of it. Aside from watching to be a policeman, Ive also wanted so much to be part of the Star Trek universe so I set out on a quest to fulfill that fantasy. I found a concept called Role Playing Game on the net, just like what I did in Police Quest except I have a chance to interact with other players and the situation adapts with my every action. I first started with IRC games; I applied as a Security officer on a starship.
After a few months I had to resign my position because school was going to start and I could no longer attend the midnight games (but in their time zone it was only after dinner. ) Disappointed I set out on another quest to find a much more suitable game for me. Thats when I found Play By Email. Again, I started as a Security officer with the lowest rank which was Ensign then after months had passed; I climbed the virtual success ladder and eventually got command of my own ship. After a few years I was one of the most powerful officers in the group and when several other players conspired against me, they managed to demote me and force me out of my position. Even in cyber space there is cyber politics and if I had just played my cyber relationships right maybe I would not have agitated the other players into kicking me off the post. In another group where I have been playing for three years now, I hold the rank of Commander and I am the first officer of a duty station (the stage or base where the players interact).
Just like in real life, I have worked my way up to gain my current position and in that process I have also gained new friends. In these groups I have met thirty year old businessmen, military officers, house wives, and students, computer technicians all sharing their writing and participating in our own virtual worlds. I have been involved in PBeM for seven years now, I have played at least five different characters and joined several organizations. A noticeable aspect of every one of my characters is that they are often the serious, up tight and by the book person who fits the profile of a Security officer.
I see this as my escape from my current RL profile and an experiment on how Ill act when I put on my characters profile. PBeM provides me with a break from reality and an inspiration for us to think that someday, we " ll be living like that too. As much as I tried to find a critique about Sherry Turkle's work I was unable to do so. I even went as far as reading a transcript of her interview on Silicon Valley Radio and read through her other articles that have been placed on the internet. Again, I failed to find any loop hole. Whats even more amazing is the fact that she covered several topics regarding the life on cyber space from online games to role playing games to the IRC yet there isnt a single aspect of it that I can contest.
Although I hate to admit it, I have a certain feeling that my mind is already too focused on the idea that Turkle's discussion hit it on the spot. I feel that I am too involved with the topic that I tend to agree with everything she has said and in fact I can relate to her opinions. Her analysis of the topic for me is very accurate and with the limited inputs I have read regarding identity on the internet, Im more inclined to just nod and say uh-huh to her every sentence. I have even encountered certain versions of the cases she presented just like her Fabulous Hot Babe anecdote and the cyber shrink Dr. Sherry.
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