That night, at 1 am, I went to the tea house, and as soon as I had made myself comfortable, outside, Sky walked up. Her first question refered to my group’s tag above my name.
Sky Szimmer: hey pema. been playing go in sl?
Pema Pera: Hi Sky!
Pema Pera: How nice to see you again
Pema Pera: it has been a while!
Sky Szimmer: same here!
Pema Pera: new clothes!
Pema Pera: looking good in black — very New York :-)
Sky Szimmer: don’t need too much imagination wearing black.
Sky Szimmer: i got new skin too : )
Pema Pera: I was wondering why you were still up!
Sky Szimmer: i always crave quiet time.
Sky Szimmer: i wake up early, stay up late.
Sky Szimmer: so I can be quiet
Sky Szimmer: rather, so the house is quiet
Sky Szimmer: i came last night too. it was a nice visit for me.
Sky Szimmer: made a couple of new friends
Sky Szimmer: felt something new in SL
Sky Szimmer: too
Sky Szimmer: wonder if you felt it too?
Pema Pera: yes, our group is expanding in a very nice way
Pema Pera: wonderful new people joining
Sky Szimmer: in a way there is this copresence, but then there is also this detachment
Sky Szimmer: yes. neat people
Sky Szimmer: interesting people
Sky Szimmer: but then you have always surrounded yourself with interesting people
Pema Pera: :), but not so easy to reach them
Sky Szimmer: interesting people attract interesting people
Pema Pera: Like, we know each other for several years now, but in RL we meet perhaps just a couple times a year
Pema Pera: and here we can all meet far more freely
Pema Pera: and frequently
Sky Szimmer: yes, sort of.
Sky Szimmer: this is what I mean by detachment
Sky reflected on the nature of friendships in SL.
Sky Szimmer: maybe it isn’t quite the same with you because I know you in RL so I have a different
Sky Szimmer: reference point
Sky Szimmer: but for some of the others, even though I know that there is a RL person behind the av,
Sky Szimmer: there is also this feeling of disconnect
Sky Szimmer: as usual, I am having a hard time explaning
Sky Szimmer: but for me, I feel as though because I only communicate in text, it is less intimate and less sense of there is a person there
Sky Szimmer: so somehow it lessens the duality for me
Sky Szimmer: there is a lesser feeling of the “other”
Sky Szimmer: you get?
Sky Szimmer: don’t get me wrong, I enjoy seeing you here and it is wonderful to see you so frequently
Sky Szimmer: but then, time is never as it seems,
Pema Pera: oh sure, I see what you mean
Sky Szimmer: years and months go by, but I feel like I’ve only said goodbye to you yesterday
Pema Pera: :-), yes indeed
Sky Szimmer: which is nice
Pema Pera: that’s the nice thing
Pema Pera: yes
Pema Pera: between good friends
Pema Pera: you pick up where you left off last time
Pema Pera: or so it feels
Pema Pera: as for meeting people here whom you haven’t met in RL
Pema Pera: yes, it is interesting how on the one hand we miss a lot of cues
Pema Pera: and body language and physical presence and yet, as I think you pointed out,
Pema Pera: even so, and perhaps because of that lack, there is a kind of distillation
Pema Pera: some of the characteristics of the people you meet here are drawn oout and accentuated
Sky Szimmer: yes.
Pema Pera: perhaps more than if you met them in real life
Pema Pera: like a political cartoon
Sky Szimmer: ha
Pema Pera: a cartoon of Bill Clinton, for example, is only a few lines
Pema Pera: but it can convey information about him that you can’t find
Pema Pera: in ten million pixels
Pema Pera: in a detailed photograph
Pema Pera: So I feel we are all distilling our presence here
Pema Pera: presenting each other high-grade essences
Pema Pera: which is a different mode of communication than anything we’ve done elsewhere
Pema Pera: and yes, there is a sense of peace and detachment too
Pema Pera: and deep involvement at the same time
Sky refered to the meeting a day earlier, where I had just dropped out, because of internet connecton
Sky Szimmer: yes. but I had a weird experience one where I was in a conference room and different people were raising questions and I got the feeling that they are all part of me and sourcing from me
Sky Szimmer: I got the same feeling here yesterday
Pema Pera: I wish I could have been present!
Pema Pera: I was inworld but then my internet connection dropped
Pema Pera: just when you came in
Pema Pera: as Fael may have told you
Sky Szimmer: where the conversation felt like it was all me
Sky Szimmer: there was no other
Sky Szimmer: weird feeling
Sky Szimmer: sorry if I offend yesterday’s friend with this remark
Pema Pera: perhaps it was no offense :)
Pema Pera: it feels very positive to me
Sky Szimmer: didn’t want to erase their individual presence with my remark
Sky Szimmer: which can be taken as such
Pema Pera: yes, every deep insight can very easily be misunderstood . . . .
Pema Pera: but since we get together here so often, with many like-minded spirits who yet have different ways of expressing themselves, there is not so much danger for misunderstanding
Pema Pera: and if it happens, it can quickly be corrected
Sky Szimmer: it is like an oracle, it may seem like it is outside of oneself, but is it?
Pema Pera: nice comparison :)
Sky Szimmer: ah, that is better
Sky Szimmer: i was looking at us from behind
Pema Pera: yes much better to look from the front!
Sky Szimmer: now i can see each other better
Sky Szimmer: i am still learning
Sky had started to experiment with camera control. Since we were sitting next to each other, she had only been able to see our backs till now.
Pema Pera: have you found time to look at the book?
Sky Szimmer: are you kidding?
Sky Szimmer: i look at pictures : )
Pema Pera: most of the instructions is given there in pictures :)
Pema Pera: like how to use camera controls
Pema Pera: using control and alt keys
Sky Szimmer: yes. i learned it but it takes practice to become familiar
Pema Pera: yes
Sky Szimmer: this sl thing is addictive i must say
Pema Pera: can easily be yes
Sky Szimmer: i guess it is nice to be in like minded company
Pema Pera: it feeds completely on our visual nervous system and embeds us in this world
Pema Pera: yes, that’s the greatest thing
Pema Pera: that we can form communities here that we can’t form in RL
Pema Pera: too few people too far away with too much hassle to meet frequently
Sky Szimmer: say more about the visual nervous system
Pema Pera: evolution has prepared us for communication in a three-dimensional world, and vision is our most developed sense with the highest information density
Pema Pera: in comparison, email and phone and web sites don’t match our evolved nervous system very well
Pema Pera: it is all abstract and we have to process it
Pema Pera: whereas information from Second Life and other virtual worlds fits our nervous system hand-in-glove
Sky Szimmer: ah.
Sky Szimmer: that is why the copresence?
Pema Pera: clicking from email to email or from web page to web page is VERY different from walking from here to the neighboring building
Pema Pera: so the copresence comes with the embedding
Pema Pera: our nervous system immediately accepts the input and embeds us into the world here, together with all the objects and other avatars too
Pema Pera: so we feel we share the same world in a very direct way
Sky Szimmer: ah. was wondering why the copresence phenom. exists
We talked about characteristics of experiencing life in SL vs. RL.
Pema Pera: it has a dream like quality too — the fact that we can see both of us sitting here on the same bench, but from a somewhat removed position
Pema Pera: another form of detachment
Pema Pera: which helps soften the subject-object distinction
Sky Szimmer: yes. which is why this is an interesting place to explore PaB
Pema Pera: I am I and you are you but watching the screen we are both here as similar avatars together
Sky Szimmer: although, do you find that familiarity with this world, dissolves some of that distinction
Pema Pera: yes, to some extent
Pema Pera: agan, the distillation factor
Sky Szimmer: the distillation factor?
Pema Pera: well, we are both presenting cartoons of our own presence to ourselves and to each other
Pema Pera: so our distilled selves mingle here
Sky Szimmer: at first, the softening of the subject object distinction was strong and it was easy to carry it to RL
Sky Szimmer: but now, i find that it has lessened which is surprising to me
Pema Pera: On the one hand, we miss a lot of RL detail; and on the other hand we are no longer distracted by those either
Sky Szimmer: i thought it would strengthen
Pema Pera: ah, you talked about seeing yourself as a fox in RL
Pema Pera: a while ago
Sky Szimmer: : )
Pema Pera: while in a difficult RL situation
Pema Pera: is that what you mean?
Sky Szimmer: no… but that is a nice memory
Sky Szimmer: thanks for the reminder
Sky Szimmer: you know, at first coming here in SL, it was really surreal and wonderful how real it all is.
Sky Szimmer: but then it is not.
Sky Szimmer: then it was like I saw RL as an extention of SL, looking at RL with SL lenses
Pema Pera: it is and it is not . . . . both in RL and SL . . . .
Sky Szimmer: yes. : )
Sky Szimmer: it was strong of it is and it is not… : )
Sky Szimmer: at first
Pema Pera: it may change again, especially when you come here more regularly; initially you came very often
Sky Szimmer: maybe. i will let you know
I was still wondering about Sky’s clothes, whether they were that black intentially or not.
Pema Pera: btw
Pema Pera: did you choose black clothes?
Sky Szimmer: yes
Pema Pera: Or is your avatar black?
Pema Pera: Ah, okay
Sky Szimmer: maybe both
Sky Szimmer: i was trying to be black for a while, but couldn’t
Pema Pera: sometimes when you use an external monitor part or all of your avatar can turn black
Pema Pera: do you use an external monitor?
Sky Szimmer: no
Sky Szimmer: what is that?
Pema Pera: another screen
Pema Pera: a bigger screen coupled to your computer
Sky Szimmer: no. are you kidding. lucky to have one screen
Sky Szimmer: and working.
Pema Pera: Well, I have to get back to RL now
Pema Pera: gettng close to dinner here
Sky Szimmer: nice chatting with you.
Sky Szimmer: good to see you.
Pema Pera: wonderful to see you here, Sky!
Sky Szimmer: bye Pema!
