Comparisons!!!

The moment in the opening of Julian Dibbell’s piece, A Rape in Cyberspace, where he acknowledges his belief that the world of “LambdaMoo existed somewhere in a concrete sense” is worth noting in relation to Wednesday’s concluding lecture because the intersection between media and reality is a theme we have been exploring throughout the course (7). Dibbell himself acknowledges that “he isn’t the first person to make this kind of mistake” since not just new technologies, but old technologies too (like the book) can evoke worlds which also share the power to sustain this kind of belief (8). Something we might wish to consider in section tomorrow are some points of departure between something like LambdaMoo and, say, the flow of television—maybe Joyrich’s (I think) notion that television not only creates family but can act as a kind of friend. Or we could think about it in relation to the gaze, voyeurism, and cinema and Benjamin’s notion of distracted spectatorship. What is it about being given instruments of some control that alters the experience for us. Or many others; these are just some potential starting points.

Also, this request is probably in vain, but can I just make a plea to everyone that we don’t compare LambdaMoo to Facebook. It’s not that there aren’t comparisons to be made, but after presentation week (and the presentations were great), if I ever have to talk critically about Facebook again any time soon I think my head is going to explode. So just be forewarned.