Saturday, March 29, 2008

The New Unreality Reality... Cyber Genitalia

Just when you thought computers and cyberspace couldn't get any weirder:

Second Life Sex Toy Suit Settled
A dispute over sales of virtual sex toys has resulted in a real-life slap on the wrist for a Texas teenager.

Eros LLC, a Tampa Bay-area company that creates virtual sex scripts in the online world Second Life, sued Robert Leatherwood, 19, last year claiming he copied, displayed or distributed Eros products without permission.

Eros creations allow Second Life users to equip their online personas, or avatars, with realistic genitalia and engage the avatars in various sexual actions.[...]

This is apparently only one of two lawsuits over activities occurring inside of Second Life, a virtual reality world in cyberspace. The whole virtual reality thing is interesting from a technical standpoint, but you have to wonder if some folks are becoming so involved in their virtual persona in their virtual world(s), that they are losing touch with the real world they are actually in?

The virtual persona and world thing isn't all that new, I remember it existed even back in the days of the Commodore 64. But the graphics, audio and bandwidth were much more primitive back then. But now, with the constantly growing resources of processing power and computer memory, allowing for much more advanced graphics and even cyber voices, talk-bots and voice recognition, it's all rapidly becoming much more sophisticated, and will continue to evolve.

Games are fine, as long as you don't lose yourself in them completely. I just wonder whats going to happen as more and more people start spending more and more time in virtual reality. It's bound to have some repercussions in the reality reality world.
     

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