Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly

Sorry the blog's been a little quiet, pesky RL has been keeping me a tad busy!!

“Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”

Chuang Tzu 368 – 286BC

I’ve always had an interest in philosophy not so much Chinese philosophy but a friend of mine told me about this story earlier today. We were chatting about what constitutes reality in a virtual world.

What do we actually mean by reality? A straightforward answer is that it means everything that appears to our five senses – everything that we can see, smell, touch and so forth. Yet this answer ignores such problematic entities as electrons or a recession, which we cannot sense but which are very real. It also ignores phantom limbs and illusory smells. Both can appear vividly real, but we would like to say that these are not part of reality.

In a virtual world we can’t touch, we can’t taste, and we can’t smell so does that mean what happens in second life isn’t real? Well, if that were the case why do we feel hurt if someone insults us, why do we feel happy when someone compliments us. Just because we can’t touch doesn’t mean we can’t feel and sometimes those feelings can be very acute, very strong so maybe a virtual reality has to be considered in a different way, perhaps the straight forward answer we apply to real life has to be suspended and we need to consider reality in a very different way. Quite which way that is I don’t know, I think we need a virtual philosopher to help us out with this one, my tiny brain is struggling.

Back to Chuang’s point, are we in some kind of “Matrix” like reality, do the thoughts and emotions we feel in second life drive what happens in real life, am I a person dreaming and living a virtual utopia or am I a piece of code dreaming of having a body that can smell and touch and see and taste and hear.

Anyway, my brain hurts – here’s what I’m wearing;

Body, Eyes, Skin, etc. - See my Charlie Chaplin Naked post

Hair - +elua+ Hazel_Red [unrigged]

Face Plugs – .:ellabella:. Kerli V2 lite-chin

Earrings - [MANDALA]HARAMITA-season2-

Boots -KC- SCARLETT BOOTS / PAIR

Jacket - *Fishy Strawberry* Padded Jacket - Maitreya - White

Leggings - erratic / meg - leggings / black (maitreya)

Pictures taken @ A Winter Trace