[extropy-chat] A Libertarian experiment?

[Mike Lorrey]

Where are the insurance companies? I'll bet that the owning company
does not permit this, either.

--- "R.Coyote" <etheric at comcast.net> wrote:
> This is not Libertarianism, Libertarianism requires laws not
> lawlesness
> 
> try again
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dirk Bruere" <dirk at neopax.com>
> To: <wta-talk at transhumanism.org>; "ExI chat list"
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 5:27 AM
> Subject: [extropy-chat] A Libertarian experiment?
> 
> 
> > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3334923.stm
> > The dark side of digital utopia
> > Dot.life - Where tech meets life, every Monday
> > By Mark Ward
> > BBC News Online technology correspondent
> >
> > How would people act if they were freed from real life laws and
> social
> > constraints? A new, interactive computer game offers just such a
> scenario -
> > with some disturbing results.
> > Imagine you could move to a city where you could swap yourself for
> a
> > younger, slimmer version that never ages and never gets tired.
> >
> > In this city you could choose which job to pursue, build your dream
> home
> and
> > do all the things you did not have the courage to do in your other
> life.
> >
> > It sounds great but soon after you arrive, the gloss begins to
> fade.
> >
> > One of the first people you meet is a kindly looking granny who
> greets you
> > with a slap round the face and a barrage of abuse.
> >
> > Escaping to one of the "safe" homes you find a den of thieves who
> trick
> you
> > into handing over all your cash.
> >
> > The local newspapers are full of investigations into child
> prostitution,
> > rampant crime, mafia-controlled neighbourhoods, shadowy
> self-declared
> > governments struggling to maintain order and runaway inflation.
> >
> > Welcome to Alphaville.
> >
> > Dark history
> >
> > Alphaville is the biggest city in The Sims Online, a spin-off of
> the
> highly
> > successful Sims computer game. As its name implies, players can
> control
> > virtual people in an online world.
> >
> > The Sims Online can be likened to a chatroom with moving pictures
> in which
> > people are represented by an avatar rather than text.
> >
> > But to the chatting it adds a rich virtual world in which every
> player has
> a
> > home. There are places to socialise, to work and visit, shops and
> services,
> > even virtual pets.
> >
> > Alphaville and its sister cities in The Sims Online were supposed
> to be
> > benign utopias that allowed people to discover who they could be
> when
> freed
> > from the economic and social restraints that shackle them in real
> life.
> >
> > But it has not turned out like that at all.
> >
> > The dark side of Alphaville has been documented by one of its
> former
> > "residents", Peter Ludlow, who in real life is a philosophy
> professor at
> the
> > University of Michigan.
> >
> >
> > Urizenus, one of the avatars controlled by Prof Ludlow, was chief
> reporter
> > on a newspaper called The Alphaville Herald which featured
> interviews with
> > Alphaville's child prostitutes, sadomasochists, Sims Mafioso,
> thieves and
> > members of its shadow government.
> > "The Alphaville Herald was not supposed to document dodgy things,"
> he
> says.
> > "It was done to document the emergence of economic, social and
> political
> > structures in the game."
> >
> > Like increasing numbers of academics Mr Ludlow is interested in
> virtual
> game
> > worlds like The Sims Online because they act as live, accelerated
> > laboratories for studying the ways people interact, get on and fall
> out.
> >
> > But as the problems of The Sims Online mounted The Alphaville
> Herald -
> which
> > exists as a separate website - became a guidebook to the goings-on
> in this
> > dystopia.
> >
> > Action and reaction
> >
> > Mr Ludlow thought the people behind the game should know what was
> going on
> > inside Alphaville, not least because some things - child
> prostitution, for
> > example - are morally and legally troubling.
> >
> >
> > But when they found out, Maxis, the game's developers, and
> Electronic
> Arts,
> > the distributors, banned all in-game mention of The Alphaville
> Herald,
> says
> > Mr Ludlow.
> > Then, says Mr Ludlow, he was thrown out of the game and his
> accounts
> closed
> > down, cutting him off from his Sims.
> >
> > EA and Maxis say they are aware of Prof Ludlow's comments, that
> they are
> > dealing with customer queries collectively and cannot talk about
> individual
> > accounts.
> >
> > They will "continue to monitor external issues as appropriate".
> They
> > declined to comment further. "
> >
> >
> > Dirk
> >
> > The Consensus:-
> > The political party for the new millennium
> > http://www.theconsensus.org
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > extropy-chat mailing list
> > extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> > http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo/extropy-chat
> 
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=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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