“Second Life Provides a New Metaphor”

Even though I was not yet “born” in the virtual world of Second Life yet, I had begun the process of identification with the part I had been designated to play. This, I realized, is how identification takes place in this world too. To begin with, as infants, we don’t know who we are. No one has given us a script yet. We are pure potential, just as all Second Life residents are before they give themselves a form—create their own avatar. And then, after the body has been created, we go about creating our world.

We do this in everyday life just as we do in a virtual world or a dream world. But the remarkable part about engaging in Second Life is that you can actually watch the identification process as it happens, at least if you arrive (download the software and create yourself) with the awareness that you are not yet identified with anyone or anything.

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