That evening, Thorberg was waiting in the pavilion when I walked up, over the bridge over the moat.
Pema Pera: Hi Thor!
Thorberg Nordlicht: hello, Pema
Pema Pera: How are you?
Thorberg Nordlicht: good; you?
Pema Pera: fine, busy as always
Pema Pera: in fact more than “always”
Thorberg Nordlicht: :)
Pema Pera: This week we have made enormous progress in MICA
Pema Pera: the astronomy group I started here in SL
Pema Pera: we got the physics engine tweaked to let it simulate the motions of stars
Pema Pera: using Newtonian gravity
Pema Pera: so instead of the physics engine letting objects fall down, and preventing you from walking through a wall
Pema Pera: it can now guide stars in orbits
Thorberg Nordlicht: whoah! I didn’t know the “physics engine” was that sophisticated
Pema Pera: It wasn’t
Pema Pera: but now it is :)
Pema Pera: Not yet in SL itself, but in OpenSim
Pema Pera: an open source version of SL
Pema Pera: that you can run on your own laptop if you like
Pema Pera: forming your own server that way
Thorberg Nordlicht: OpenSim; I see
Thorberg Nordlicht: does it create a virtual 3d environment just like Second Life?
Pema Pera: Adam Johnson and Jeff Ames, developers of OpenSim, did this a couple days ago
Thorberg Nordlicht: can i develop locally and then “export” to “live” SL
Pema Pera: yes, it’s a clone of SL
Pema Pera: in principle
Thorberg Nordlicht: cool!
Pema Pera: except that the Lindens don’t let you tinker with “their” gravity in the phsysics engine operating right here
Pema Pera: the one that keeps you glued to your cushion right now
Pema Pera: by simulating gravity :)
Thorberg Nordlicht: i see; you wanted no gravity for outer space, right?
Pema Pera: That would give us a nice way to eject griefers — just reverse gravity for them :-)
Thorberg Nordlicht: haha
Pema Pera: yes, one over r squared, 1/r^2, inverse square law of Newton
Rowan walkd in, followed by Steve who had a bit more trouble arriving, and Dakini.
Pema Pera: Hi Rowan, great to see you again!
Thorberg Nordlicht: :)
Rowan Masala: Hi Pema and Thor
Thorberg Nordlicht: hello Rowan
Rowan Masala shouts: Steven–you’re in the water
stevenaia Michinaga: no wonder I can’t see anyything
Pema Pera: Good evening, Dakini!
Dakini Rhode: hello!
Pema Pera: Hi there Steve!
Rowan Masala: are we gonna be talking about Newtonian equations tonight?
Rowan Masala: Hi Dakini
Pema Pera: haha, we could!
Dakini Rhode: hi Rowan, Thorberg, Steve :-)
Pema Pera: Steve is excited enough to do so!
Pema Pera: jumping around like a star in a simulation
Rowan Masala smiles
Pema Pera: where did he go now?
Rowan Masala: he poofed
Thorberg Nordlicht: i’ve thought it would be nice to have an “outer space” sim where there is no “ground”, no gravity, and no up and down
Rowan Masala: he’ll be back
Pema Pera: stars sometimes poof too
Rowan Masala: there is a zero G sim, thor
Pema Pera: exactly, well, Thor, you got it!
Thorberg Nordlicht: a place to build the ultimate skybox
Pema Pera: That’s what we did
Thorberg Nordlicht: oh yeah, there’s a zero G sim? I didn’t know that
Pema Pera: But not zero G
Rowan Masala: well, that’s what it’s called
Pema Pera: but our own gravity
Pema Pera: yes, that is no gravity
Rowan Masala: but there is actually gravity of a sort there
Pema Pera: we constructed our own interstellar gravity
Thorberg Nordlicht: so, how do i find this alleged zero-G sim?
Pema Pera: in OpenSim
Rowan Masala: but neat orbiting poseballs
Neela appeared as well. Steven had stopped swimming and jumping, and now he stood there, still completely grey, except for his shoes, and ruthed.
Pema Pera: Hi Neela!
Neela Blaisdale: Hello
Rowan Masala: I think that may be it
Rowan Masala: wb Steve
stevenaia Michinaga: a very strange journey
Rowan Masala: just FYI, you’re ruthed
Thorberg Nordlicht: “ruthed”?
Pema Pera: A grey ruth clothed only in black shoes . . . .
Rowan Masala: ah–there you go
Dakini Rhode: you’re normal now
Thorberg Nordlicht: ??
Rowan Masala: you’re yourself
Pema Pera: :)
Thorberg Nordlicht: oh! half-baked?
Rowan Masala: ruthed is when male avs turn into the default female av
Rowan Masala: the original female was named ruth
Pema Pera: the opposite of the bible story
stevenaia Michinaga: sinc when has being ruthed bothered me
Thorberg Nordlicht: oh! *now* i understand; thanks
Rowan Masala smiles
Rowan Masala: true
Rowan Masala: man, woman, all the same to you
Dakini Rhode: it happens to all of us sooner or later
Pema Pera: can’t really happen to you, I guess :)
Pema Pera: or always
Dakini Rhode: yes indeed it can
Pema Pera: ?
Rowan Masala: Stevie, was the place with the orbital hold poseballs called Zero Point?
Dakini Rhode: the default “ruth” avatar is a specific shape
Pema Pera: ah!
Rowan Masala: and newbie hair
stevenaia Michinaga: let me look
Dakini Rhode: yes that brown hair sticking out from under your prim hair… so attractive
Rowan Masala grins
stevenaia Michinaga: Inspire Space Park Ultra Natural, Shinda (6, 214, 208)
Dakini Rhode: field trip?
stevenaia Michinaga: one of the more interesting out of world places
Rowan Masala: ok, Thor, then I have no idea what that LM I gave you was
Rowan Masala: beware
Pema Pera: sure
Thorberg Nordlicht: no problem; i like to explore; :)
Rowan Masala smiles at Thor
Dakini mentioned her new teleport hub, for connecting different PaB land locations.
Dakini Rhode: I should mention i just put a prototype teleport hub near here… it should work for teleporting across sims
Dakini Rhode: so you can TP to all the PaB locations….
Dakini Rhode: so if you see it, pls don’t worry
stevenaia Michinaga: how many are there?
Dakini Rhode: i don’t have them all in the hub
Dakini Rhode: just a prototype
Pema Pera: wonderful, thanks a lot, Dakini!
Dakini Rhode: Pema or Storm will need to let us know how many locations to put up…
Thorberg Nordlicht: approximately how many we talking about?
Pema Pera: Let me count how many sims we have spread out over . . . just a sec . . .
Pema Pera: fourteen :)
Thorberg Nordlicht: yikes!
Thorberg Nordlicht: i didn’t know that!?
Rowan Masala: you have 14 sims!!!???
Pema Pera: not 14 full sims
Pema Pera: pieces of 14 sims
Thorberg Nordlicht: how many “sims worth” does it add up to?
Pema Pera: in total between 3 and 4 I guess
Rowan Masala: wow
Pema Pera: if you were to pull it all together
Pema Pera: so lots of room for y’all to play in!
Pema Pera: Storm put up a sandbox, of a 1/3 of a sim in size
Pema Pera: and whatever is produced there, and we all like, can go elsewhere
stevenaia Michinaga: we sould do a house tour of sorts some time
Thorberg Nordlicht: once again, I have to wonder why you’re not considering an Island
Pema Pera: hi Thor, well, once again, shall I give the same answer :-)
Thorberg Nordlicht: I know it wasn’t a popular idea when i last brought it up, but if you’re up to that much tier payment, maybe it’s time to consider it
Thorberg Nordlicht: yes, ok, same answer :)
Thorberg Nordlicht: “your roots are here”
Thorberg Nordlicht: :)
Pema Pera: yes
Dakini Rhode: island tier is more expensive than mainland
Pema Pera: and rather than living in a vacuum
Thorberg Nordlicht: ok, as before, i’ll drop the subject :)
Pema Pera: I prefer to be here near the welcome center as well
Pema Pera: haha, Thor!
Dakini Rhode: yes
Yes, the PaB land is not cheap, but fortunately, the Fetzer Foundation has been generous in its grant to Stim and me, for the study of virtual worlds in the context of modern contemplative approaches.
Pema Pera: but money is of course an issue
Pema Pera: fortunately, the universe seems to provide :)
Pema Pera: being concretely speaking right now the Fetzer foundation
Pema Pera: which has paid for all expenses so far
stevenaia Michinaga: nice of them
Pema Pera: and we’re in the process of applying for new grants
Pema Pera: but compared to salaries and buildings and meetings in RL
Pema Pera: even a few sims worth of tier is not that expensive
Thorberg Nordlicht: I guess I never heard that part of the story before. Is that their motivation for funding this? An experiment to see how it works in the much cheaper virtual realm?
Pema Pera: They started by giving a grant to Steven Tainer (Stim in SL) and me for exploring virtual worlds, a year ago
Pema Pera: Stim and I started in Qwaq
Pema Pera: Let me give you an URL
Pema Pera: http://www.waysofknowing.net/VRExplorations.html
Pema Pera: and that grant included money for virtual world rent
Rowan Masala: Qwaq kind of stinks for personal aesthetic expression
Pema Pera: Hi Dharma!
Dharma Voyager: thank you so much
Pema Pera: Welcome back in our new place!
Rowan Masala: Hello Dharma :)
Thorberg Nordlicht: “virtual world rent”
Dharma Voyager: oh it is lovely
Pema Pera: Dakini made it
Dakini Rhode: hello Dharma :-)
Dharma arrived, and it was her first visit to our new pavilion.
Dharma Voyager: different sim
Dharma Voyager: oh very nice
Dharma Voyager: hello (bows)
stevenaia Michinaga: hi Dharma…huggs
Rowan Masala: Namaste
Dharma Voyager: hey stevie!
Dharma Voyager: thank you…. and you as well
Dharma Voyager: (bows)
Dakini Rhode: Dharma i don’t think we’ve met
Dharma Voyager: I met you one time before, but it was a busy conversation when you came in the room
Dharma Voyager: you may not have noticed
Dharma Voyager: oh! and I have my blond hair on
Dharma Voyager: in honor of a friend :)
Dakini Rhode: your name is familiar, but i thought I read it…
Dharma Voyager: I don’t know… smiles
Dakini Rhode: well hi again :-)
Dharma Voyager: hello there :)
Dharma Voyager: I’m sorry to interrupt
Pema Pera: oh no not at all, Dharma!
Rowan Masala: will it distract you all from the conversation if I stand instead of sitting? am restless
Dharma Voyager: not me
Pema Pera: whatever you like, Rowan :)
Pema Pera: Hi Carlos!
Pema Pera: Welcome to our new spot
Carlos Cornelius: Hi everybody!
Dharma Voyager: hi carlos :)
Rowan Masala: Hi Carlos
Dakini Rhode: hello Carlos
Carlos Cornelius: Hi! It is good to be here. So is this the new Pab spot?
Pema Pera: yes, Dakini built it
Carlos Cornelius: wow, it is really nice, congrats!
Carlos joined us as well, so there were now again seven of us, since Neela had left.
Dharma Voyager: this is really lovely… I love what you did with the odd texture on the ceiling
Dakini Rhode: :-))) thanks so much
Dharma Voyager: beautiful
Pema Pera: Hey, Avastu!
Pema Pera: Welcome!
Avastu Maruti: hello again, my friend
Pema Pera: Everybody, meet Avastu
Dharma Voyager: hello Avastu
Rowan Masala: hi Avastu
Pema Pera: He has his own group, in the lineage of Nisargadatta, here in SL
Dakini Rhode: hello Avastu
Carlos Cornelius: Hi Avastu!
Thorberg Nordlicht: hello, Avastu! Welcome!
Pema Pera: come join us!
Avastu Maruti: thank you
With Avastu arriving, there were eight of us.
Pema Pera: Fael and I talked with Avastu briefly, a while ago
Pema Pera: when I showed him the area
Pema Pera: His kind of teaching is squarely focused on Being
Pema Pera: if we drink beer he drinks wodka :)
Carlos Cornelius: sounds like a good correlation:) beer and vodka
Thorberg Nordlicht: Avastu, you have your own group here in SL?
Avastu Maruti: yes
Thorberg Nordlicht: do you have a location? meet on a regular schedule? tell us about it
Pema Pera: http://avastu0.blogspot.com/
Pema Pera: there is a link from the PaB blog directly
Pema Pera: called “You are Dreaming”
Avastu Maruti: it happens each Tuesday at 7 PM SLT in the OWOKUN island
Avastu Maruti: it is simply a discussion of nonduality and Advaita and other nondual traditions
Pema Pera: And Dharma has her own group as well, linked from the PaB blog as “Skillful Means”
Pema Pera: http://skillfulmeans.wordpress.com/
Dharma Voyager: oh the one at my place is only a book discussion
Dharma Voyager: thank you… it’s fun
Pema Pera: So we have two PaB link representatives visiting us :)
Dakini Rhode: 3?
Dakini Rhode: :-)
Pema Pera: yes, Dakini, you too — sorry — but not directly the Zen retreat happenings blog
Dakini Rhode: in case we don’t all know each other, my group is the Zen Retreat - we have zazen daily
Dakini Rhode: and soon to have sutra discussion
Dakini Rhode: _/!\_
Pema Pera: Avastu, Dakini built this pavilion
Pema Pera: and every evening at 6 pm SLT she leads a zen group
Avastu Maruti: it is very nice
Pema Pera: Dakini was the one who brought me here
Dakini Rhode: and playasbeing is at 7PM just following
Pema Pera: http://zenretreat.blogspot.com/ is Dakini’s blog
Pema Pera: also linked from PaB home page, under “Zen Retreat”
Dakini Rhode: oh yes, but that is for the playasbeing practice….
Pema Pera: do you have another blog?
Pema Pera: for Zen Retreat?
Dakini Rhode: oh no…
Pema Pera: ah, perhaps time to set one up . . . .
Dakini Rhode: nonono
Dakini Rhode: lol i have a day job :-)
Avastu and I talked about playing, and he gave me a present.
Pema Pera: Avastu, for us the “play” element has turned out to be important
Pema Pera: how has your experience been, with your students
Pema Pera: how do they work with the “I am That” notion
Pema Pera: on a day-to-day basis
Avastu Maruti: not sure how to answer that - it is only ever THIS
Dharma Voyager: brb
Avastu Maruti: we cannot play - we cannot escape being…
Avastu Maruti: your group is simply to recognize that fact, I presume
Pema Pera: yes, that is one way to say it.
Pema Pera: Being can play
Pema Pera: or you could say, everything is only Being playing
Avastu Maruti: yes
Pema Pera: but those are of course just words . . . .
Pema Pera: . . . pointing to Being
Avastu Maruti: a gift for you… to play - I will send
Avastu Maruti gave you Chocolate Disco2.
Pema Pera: Chocolate Disco 2 ! ? ! ?
Pema Pera: wow
Pema Pera: I’m sure Dakini would like one too
Avastu Maruti: yes?
Dakini Rhode: oh my we just did onigokko kinhin
Dakini Rhode: ty avastu
Pema Pera: チョコレイト・ディスコ ♪
Avastu Maruti: ty Dakini
Pema Pera: :-)
Avastu Maruti: very nice
Dakini Rhode: it was so nice seeing everyone…
Dakini Rhode: i must go now
Dakini Rhode: Namaste
Dharma Voyager: namaste
stevenaia Michinaga: night dakini
Avastu Maruti: good night my friend
Carlos Cornelius: bye Dakini
Thorberg Nordlicht: good night, Dakini
After I tried out the new version of the chocolate disco dance, Dakini had to leave.
Pema Pera: sorry, some lag and SL troubles
Pema Pera: back again
Pema Pera: So yes, Avastu, the most important thing we’re doing here, it seems, is to discuss this and that, about what we can do, and then to realize we can’t do anything :-)
Pema Pera: we can only realize Being is all there is
Avastu Maruti: yes
Pema Pera: even the notion “letting Being do things rather than we” is misleading
Pema Pera: at best approximate
Avastu Maruti: yes
Pema Pera: and in fact wrong
Pema Pera: so all that is very simple
Pema Pera: but somehow we spend hours every day leading up to and around it :)
Thorberg Nordlicht: :)
For ten minutes, nobody spoke, a far longer silence than we have ever had in a Play as Being session, so far.
Pema Pera: That is our Play as Being bell :-)
Pema Pera: every fifteen minutes, reverberating for 9 seconds
Pema Pera: and this has just been our first ten-minute silence in three months :-)
stevenaia Michinaga: it helps and isn;t a bad idea, a bell
Pema Pera: Moon and Fael made it
Pema Pera: Moon the bell, Fael the script
Dharma Voyager: nice I love having one in my garden
Pema Pera: I’m sure you can get one
stevenaia Michinaga: nice collaboration
Dharma Voyager: I have one that recites the haert sutra and rings every few seconds… I love it…
Dharma Voyager: was a fun script to write
Carlos Cornelius: it is a nice sound-reminder
Pema Pera: just aske Moon Fargis by IM
Dharma Voyager: did the bell sound I don’t think I heard it
Pema Pera: yes, at the hour
Pema Pera: and every 15 minutes
Dharma Voyager: oh very nice
Dharma Voyager: I’ll turn up my sounds I must have missed it
I returned to the opening topic that evening, the work that my astronomy colleagues and friends had been engaged in the last few days.
Pema Pera: btw, on a completely different topic
Pema Pera: we produced a YouTube videa
Pema Pera: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gM4fmL6dLdY
stevenaia Michinaga: on this group/
Pema Pera: video
Pema Pera: about our work with stars in SL, or more accurately OpenSim
Pema Pera: may be fun to watch, at least the first half minute
Avastu Maruti: interesting
Pema Pera: we used the physics engine to tell the stars how to move
Pema Pera: the same software that prevents us from walking through walls and fall through floors or cushions
Pema Pera: and that makes us drop when we stop flying
Pema Pera: can also tell stars how to attract each other
Pema Pera: through Newton’s inverse square forces
Dharma Voyager: do you know who made the video?
Pema Pera: so that’s exactly what we did
Avastu Maruti: love in action
Pema Pera: Yes
Dharma Voyager: we know some of the open sim guys
Pema Pera: Two of the OpenSim developers
Pema Pera: Adam and Jeff
Pema Pera: who live here in Tokyo
Pema Pera: we had dinner with them a few days ago
Dharma Voyager: oh cool … we know adam
Pema Pera: and Jeff tweaked his physics engine in a matter of hours
Pema Pera: and then he produced that video
Pema Pera: pretty awesome
Dharma Voyager: wonders if jeff is the partner
Pema Pera: How did you meet Adam?
Dharma Voyager: working on open sim
Dharma Voyager: smiles
Dharma Voyager: I did very little at the begining
Dharma Voyager: because of my work resposnibilities
Pema Pera: wow, how nice!
Dharma Voyager: but Dogen did a lot more
Dharma Voyager: has done much recently
Pema Pera: Adam Johnson and Jeff Ames are now both working for genkii, new company in Tokyo
Dharma Voyager: yes great guys
Dharma Voyager: yes that is them
Dharma Voyager: very cool
Small world indeed.
Pema Pera: would you like to be on our email list, Dharma?
Dharma Voyager: I just let Dogen know
Dharma Voyager: which list?
Pema Pera: great, I have not met him yet
stevenaia Michinaga: smaller world today
Pema Pera: we have a MICA astronomy group in SL
Dharma Voyager: actually he was at the book reading
Dharma Voyager: ummm… I can’t say I know much about it
Dharma Voyager: hehehehhe
Dharma Voyager: I’m geeky in other ways
Pema Pera: ah, yes, now I remember!
Pema Pera: and we have several email lists for different parts of MICA
Dharma Voyager: his open sim name is babble frog
Dharma Voyager: I forget what mine was
Pema Pera: http://www.physics.drexel.edu/mica/
Pema Pera: Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics
Dharma Voyager: cool
Dharma Voyager: sure
Pema Pera: including one email list for simulations
Dharma Voyager: put me on the list that would be great
Pema Pera: several emails a day
Pema Pera: sure
Pema Pera: what email address shall I use?
Dharma Voyager: ooooo several e-mails a day?
Pema Pera: google list
Pema Pera: yeah, may be too much for ya
Pema Pera: :)
Pema Pera: nitty gritty
Dharma Voyager: hmmm… yes I don’t think I can do that right now
Dharma Voyager: perhaps I will ask later… to much going on
Pema Pera: how to set up OpenSim server stuff like that
Pema Pera: sure!
I gave a quick impression of how important this week had been for me. During the last eight years I have tried, if various ways, to use non-standard visualization techniques from outside astronomy in order to apply them to our professional simulations, and finally we have now reached a solution that seems totally satisfactory, at least in principle. Of course, it is also a new beginning, since now we have to put in all the details.
Pema Pera: This week has been really very gratifying, in a sense the end and the beginning of what I wanted to do in virtual worlds for my work . . . . . .
Pema Pera: The end of a phase of visualization that started eight years ago
Dharma Voyager: I already have a couple open sim servers running somewhere here
Dharma Voyager: hahahha
Dharma Voyager: brb
Pema Pera: when I began to use the planetarium at the Museum for Natural HIstory in NYC
Pema Pera: for scientific visualization
Pema Pera: the “old” vortual worlds
stevenaia Michinaga: nice choice
Pema Pera: and now we have an immersive planetarium
Pema Pera: where avatars and stars are treated the same way
Pema Pera: in a sense you could say
Pema Pera: the subject-object distinction has dropped away
Pema Pera: or at least lessened
Pema Pera: an amazing intersection of my interests in science and in contemplation . . . . .
Pema Pera: and from this week on, we’ll make it grow
Pema Pera: this week really was the watershed.
Pema Pera: Visualization has always been an afterthought in academic work
Pema Pera: You spend a few years writing a very complex simulation code
Pema Pera: and then in the end you produce some pictures for a publication
Pema Pera: and perhaps a little movie
Pema Pera: But our idea is to switch the priorities around
Pema Pera: live in the visualization and treat the details of the simulation code as an afterthought
Pema Pera: it makes prototyping of simulations and simulation codes very different
Pema Pera: much more flexible, direct, real
Pema Pera: another 15 minutes :-)
Pema Pera: and collaboration becomes immersive too
Pema Pera: a sociological change from individuals competing with each other, each in their own office
Pema Pera: to groups work remotely across the planet, meeting here in SL
Pema Pera: Well, as you can see, I’m pretty excited about it all :-)
Dharma Voyager: very cool….
Pema Pera: AND amateurs and pros working together, never happens that way in RL
Carlos mentioned phenomenology.
Carlos Cornelius: as you said it is a very good to intersect science with phenomenology and contemplation
Carlos Cornelius: through visualization
Pema Pera: and it occurred naturally, not forced
Pema Pera: the medium called for it . . . .
Pema Pera: Carlos is a philosopher, phenomenologist, the best kind :)
Carlos Cornelius: :)
Dharma Voyager: I’m sorry.. but just got called off somewhere…
Carlos Cornelius: at least I try, interacting with groups like Pab has open new horizons for me
Dharma Voyager: thank you for having me
Carlos Cornelius: philosophy without phenomenology is very abstract and senseless
Pema Pera: yes, like theoretical physics without experiments
stevenaia Michinaga: see you all soon…smiles
Pema Pera: see you Steve!
Avastu Maruti: good bye my friend
stevenaia Michinaga: thx
Carlos Cornelius: bye Steve
Pema Pera: I probably should get going too
Pema Pera: Thanks for coming over, Avastu, Carlos!
Avastu Maruti: thank you for inviting me, my friend
Carlos Cornelius: metoo, it was great seeing you and great meeting you Avastu
