Cyberspace, meatspace and reality

I've been thinking a lot lately about the online/offline dichotomy... it seems to me that many people believe you cannot have a real relationship online, and that anyone with an extensive online persona and life cannot have a real life.

The trigger for this was several people commenting to me that they couldn't get online because they were busy with, I quote, 'real life stuff'. I'm guilty of saying that too. At least one other person told me that a mutual acquaintance no longer plays Habbo because he's 'got a life now'.

The thing is that in this world, our 21st-century, developed nation, Internetworked world, is it fair to say that the meatspace* is the 'real' world? Many people have active online lives now, and it seems to me to be vaguely wrong to say that all this time and interaction with online communities and people somehow isn't real, or is less than what happens face-to-face.

I'm much more comfortable with the term 'face-to-face', come to think of it. :)

I've been on the Internet for years, since before I entered university. I have friends of many years' standing that I've never met face to face. I've met at least one, whom I was introduced over the Internet through an old school friend. (Safety caveat: I was an adult by the time I met him, and I trust him at least partly because he's one of my best friends' ex-boyfriend, plus I'd literally known him for years by the time I met him.)

In any case, many of my friendships must necessarily be maintained over instant messenger, email and the phone, because a large percentage of the people I love and care about most don't live where I live. Even if we live in the same country, often we're so busy our schedules don't let us meet. I'm not entirely happy with that - I'd love to see my friends more - but with everyone's work schedules and different interests, I'm not sure there's an alternative.

Our relationships feel genuine. The emotions are the same as in the physical world. We all have reasonably active 'real life' social lives and interests. Even if we didn't, who's to judge and say that what happens online isn't as real as what happens offline? The term 'real world' implies a value judgement I don't think I like. It's as if what happens online isn't concrete enough to be real, and it's thinking like this that allows us to hurt people online and disregard the impact of what we say and do. I can't comprehend thinking that since it's online, it's not real and therefore has no consequences.

Read more about the meatspace concept here:
Wikipedia: Meatspace
Wordspy.com - meatspace.asp
The Jargon File on meatspace
Wikipedia: Real life

and about cyberpunk here:
Wikipedia: Cyberpunk
Comprehensive article from the University of Glasgow's Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute


And if you haven't read William Gibson before, why not check out some of the work of the godfather of cyberpunk today? I know the libraries in Singapore will have some copies of his novels and stories.

William Gibson blows my mind. Many concepts that originated in his work, like the matrix and ICE, are massively influential on modern science fiction. Most of all, Gibson was responsible for the term 'cyberspace' too; it first appeared in his 1984 story Burning Chrome. (Although admittedly people argue about the 'real' meaning of cyberspace all the time...)

More on this to come, when I've had more time to think on it.

How to waste time and work your brain

So! It's been a long time since I last posted anything of real substance. :) I've been too long away though, and it's nice to be back and feeling creative again.

Nonetheless, things conspire to suck away your creativity and time. One of the time-wasters I've been having fun with lately is this puzzle site: http://www.eyezmaze.com/. It's a site with a bunch of cool Flash games, with a mix of puzzles and arcade-style games. My current favourites are 2 of the Grow games, Grow Cube and Grow Ornament. (Love the little dudes!) I'm still working on Grow RPG...

Basically, what you want to do is to drop the elements around the play screen on the cube/tree/world. They'll then evolve and interact with each other. If you get the sequence right, neat stuff happens. :D

Have a look! They're great fun, and you'll rely more on brain than fast twitch reflexes (thank god). If you get too desperate for an answer, you can always Google for the walkthrough, but there's nothing like solving it yourself, eh?