Seven Generational Ruminations

Attorney General Gonzales is proposing a mandatory labeling requirement for web sites publishing sexually explicit material. A web site operator not labeling their sexually explicit web site would face imprisonment.

There's a growing wave of what they call "teledildonics", which is a $20 word for remote control sex toys. These are gizmos that "manipulate the genitals" under computer control, providing sexual experiences mediated by computer software running over the Internet.

It's a truism that any new technology is often first used to facilitate sexual encounters. So here we go.

I just listened to an National Public Radio piece that presents one mans concept of utopia. Namely, individuals or small scale organizations working on small scale work projects.

The other day I was at Target looking for clothes, and wandered by the video section. This one rack had "The Wedding Crashers (unrated edition)", some unrated edition of some other movie, plus Toy Story 2. Well something in my mind clicked and I started wondering what an "unrated" version of Toy Story 2 would be like. What kind of toys would appear in the unrated version? And what would Cowgirl Jessie, the old prospector, etc, all be doing? And we might learn why the main character's name is Woody...

Well ....

http://biodiesel.tribe.net/ is an online community web site for biodiesel.

This has been foreshadowed for a long time. When Jaron Lanier was interveiwed by CoEvolution Quarterly, one of the questions they asked was "what would it take for virtual sex?". If you don't remember, Jaron Lanier was the inventor of virtual reality, the 3D goggles and body suit required to enter a 3D virtual world. His answer? It would require a data connection capable of transferring 2 gigabits per second of data.

So, today we have High Joy at http://www.highjoy.com/

This is a "dating" site where the main gimmick is the ability to remotely control other peoples sex toys.

Sigh, what are people finding in the virtual world of games that they cannot find in real life?

Man dies after online game marathon (Tuesday, August 9, 2005)

This man, identified as Lee, had quit his job so he could spend more time playing video games. Quit his job, to play more video games.

Dan Gillmor is a longtime professional journalist whose beat for a long time was Silicon Valley.

We the Media author: Dan Gillmor asin: 0596007337

It's possible to get so tied up with ones online "life", say as a character in an online game, that you lose sight of where your life really is. Let me remind the readers, your life is where your body is. Anything that you experience in cyberspace is an extension of the life you have in your body.

Case in point:

Onliner gamer stabbed over 'stolen' cybersword (TheRegister.co.uk; By Lester Haines
Published Wednesday 30th March 2005)

The article covers a pair of gamers, who were friends with one another. They had jointly won a "sword" in an online game. Then one lent the sword to his friend, and his friend sold the sword. The other friend got mad, and killed his friend who had sold the sword. This was a real life "killed", as in murdered, with police and everything. And now the lawyers are pondering the meaning of virtual property.

As the SPAM in my mailbox indicates, there's a big business opportunity out there in, ahem, providing, ahem, services to studly young men. But I suppose that's why prostitution is the worlds oldest profession, eh?

Socially inadequate? Meet V-girl

(By Lester Haines;
Published Thursday 24th February 2005 14:37 GMT; TheRegister.co.uk)

Take one computer scientist who's an expert in artificial intelligence and neural networks. Add big honking computers, mobile telecommunications, and a portable display device with decent graphics. What comes out the other side? Why, meet Vivienne, the V-girl.