Virtual Worlds and Human Imagination Boundaries

I’m not a scientist, but love to speculate about different matters, which are usually in the focus of the science. So if you feel like reading a pseudo-scientific-emotionally-loaded-speculative essay, then go on. If you’re true scientists and believe in the strict formal approach, the following text is not for you. Virtual Worlds (VW) are getting more and more popular these days. While there is not a broad acceptance of the virtual worlds as a communication platform yet, they will be definitely a part of our social life one day. These tools will eventually replace the Web 2.0 hype as a new content representation paradigm. People will than look on to the virtual worlds as an important social and business environment or even as new residential places much alike the Americas or Space. We will need to develop new skills in order to squeeze the most of this challenging environment. Futurists talk about the evolution of the human race in response to the space colonization. I think we’ll have yet another evolution path to optimize – virtual world colonization. This path has already started in the past, since the presence of APRANET. I’m talking about evolution path, because the virtual world properties will challenge our current biological limitations and their psychological reflection.
There are anthropological theories, focused over the psychological limitations developed in result of characteristics existing in our genotype and phenotype. We tend to develop specific psychological and cognitive constructs, seen as a direct result of our individual biological characteristics. People demonstrate behaviors, which are mapped to specific psychological constructs. Some of these behaviors may be easily seen as a direct result from specific biological characteristics. For the purpose of this speculation I will talk about them as biological limitations. Behaviors influenced by these biological limitations may be considered as a rational. We just can’t do it another way.

L'anatomie, c'est le destin!

The phrase means "the anatomy is a destiny" and is usually attributed to Fraud Freud. However FraudFreud him self said that this phrase belongs to Napoleon. We don’t jump from skyscrapers, because we can’t fly. We are afraid as the height goes up because of our flight limitations. We tend to approach a person closer to talk, because our voice is distance limited. We feel jealous, when our intimate partner is approached by another individual, because our reproductive path is treat hen. However, there are behaviors influenced by psychological constructs, where the relation to specific biological properties is hard to be seen. Sometimes the direct relation is missing just because the biological limitation is already a history. There are behaviors developed during the infancy (when there are biological limitations presented), which are used later in the individual’s life, when the limitation is not presented, anymore. Such behaviors may be seen as irrational. It is quite challenging from a scientific point of view to develop a clear behavior classification based on the rationale-irrational axis. The virtual worlds these days are still far more limited in terms of possible states (compared to the real world). The virtual worlds are still described by a limited number of rules, which allows researchers to operate over them with more formal tools. The formalization is possible due to the fact that they are computer simulated. This renders the virtual worlds as a useful scientific playground- the behavioral context is much simple and suitable for formal representations. However, these research possibilities raise a various ethic questions.
Because of the ideas mentioned up, I see the virtual world presence as a big evolution challenge for the human race. If one is roaming in the Second Life World, he may observe various behaviors, which may be mapped to a psychological constructs, while the biological limitation is not present in the virtual world. In the real life we shall act this way, just because we are biologically limited, but in the virtual world this behaviors may be classified as irrational. I will try to give some examples:

• Line of Sight
  Tons of public events (concerts, theaters, educational classes) are hosted every day in SL. It is not rare to see folks struggling to take a front place near the stage. In real life we’re doing this, because our effective sight and hearing distance is limited. This tendency may be observed even into individuals, who know that SL provides instruments to watch around the avatar to a far greater distance.
• Psychological Space Distribution
  In real life, we tend to distribute our physical space according to our psychological space. It may be observed easily in closed spaces like rooms. We stand closely to our intimate partners. We stand on a limited distance from unknown people and far from our enemies. We tend to keep a descent distance from formal peers during conversation. We take a place near the corner in unknown and unstructured situations. The distance and place are more likely to reflect our current emotional state, our fear and uncertainty, our goals. There are plenty of local social-cognitive theories, which try to explain the physical space distribution in result of specific psychological properties. Second Life provides few communication tools, which are distance limited and one which is not (IM). Go to public places in SL and watch people talking. You will see a tendency people to distribute the virtual space based on their feelings and goals toward specific peers. People try to preserve the right distance, when talking with peers. People try to stand in front of the peer as it would be done in the real world. People stand aside, when feel uncertain or socially incapable. Avatars may communicate in SL (technically) without using these common social techniques, but people use them.
• 3D Space Distribution
  In real life we live closer to the ground. We have skyscrapers and towers, but they are built on the ground. Going higher and higher, the discomfort levels starts raising. While in real life we may localize specific biological limitations and corresponding psychological constructs, which make the sky inhabiting difficult, in SL it is slightly different. SL world is a true 3D (still virtual) space. Avatars (individuals) may fly up to 170 m (not sure about the exact height, actually), alone. The maximum height, to which avatar may fly with the help of a vehicle is about 4000m (there are ways to push avatar up to million meters, actually). Buildings do not have to be built on the ground and may hang up in the air up to 650 m from the ground. In general SL residents may live high above the ground if they wish. They may fully utilize the true 3D space in the virtual world – and it is still a dream in the real life in 21 century. There are a lot of buildings and platforms in SL built high above the ground. However the majority of the population inhabits the ground levels. I see it as a result of our specific psychological constructs formed in the physical world.

We may find plenty of examples about the way people tend to demonstrate behaviors used in the real world, which may be seen as rational in the physical world and irrational in the virtual world.

I’m not advocating that people do not have to behave like that in the virtual world. We are humans, when behave like humans. We have to stay closer to our intimate partner. We have to stand in front of our conversation peer. We have to feel joy, when observing beautiful pictures. We may live up high and feel fear. We must hunt for emotions. We must live for the moments, when the emotion stops our breath. However, the virtual worlds will change us. We will be limited by our imagination only.

This is the time to test if human imagination has boundaries!