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Julian Dibbell » A Rape in Cyberspace
I have made use of this or its influential ancestor article in a few courses that I have taught over the past decade or so and, after a long period of forgetting about it, have done so again recently. Rereading it again, I was as affected by it now as much as I was the first time I read it. Though it relates to events that occurred in the largely superseded technology of the MOO, Dibbell's detailed descriptions and rich reflections are as relevant in an era of social networks, MMORPGs, Q&A sites, web forums and immersive worlds as they were when he first wrote them. Maybe more so.
It's a long, harrowing, but rewarding read, not for the easily offended, unravelling the unpleasant story of Mr Bungle and his reincarnation as Dr Jest, the things he did to other characters in the MOO, and the responses of the other inhabitants of the MOO to 'him' (I may give away too much with those quotes). It challenges notions of identity, self, and the nature of human engagement as well as offering a fascinating meditation on ethics, consensus and social contracts in both meat-space and cyber-space. No unequivocal answers, but many challenging questions. The denouement that was not there in the original piece is worth waiting for, and makes the whole episode even more ugly and even more thought-provoking than it appears from the start.
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Comments
<sigh>
groups can be so powerful - for good or bad
Community of any kind, even virtual, is still a community and it entitles feelings that can be hurt and since feelings cannot be defined, so cannot the perceptions of them. And aside from the virtual crime committed, I was not surprised about the reactions of the community - reverting back to the Wild West, the Dark Ages and prior times social habits, calling for lynch and "capital punishment", thus transforming from a community into a mob is no better than the crime itself. This is a very delicate balance superimposed from the real life - the system should take care of its members with more or less success through enforced behavioural norms, ideally achieving Wells's "1984" state of social order, while the individuals tend to be anarchist, and that is why the "system" can never tailor to the individual.
However, the problem of fake identities in an online presence would logically imply that it is difficult to directly hold virtual people responsible and put them on a trial as this is simply not effective in any way, thus resurfacing of Dr. Jest. I am always advocating for human freedoms and against any exploitations by the "system", but this shows exactly more than simple virtual life experience, factually what would have happened if we were to wake up in a world without rules, standing in between the evil-minded individuals and self-guided mobs.
Finally, the most scary fact is the number of people with malicious intentions (whole dorm floor), who find any drive in them to say such words in order to achieve the self-amusement factor. This whole case just fortifies what I always say - our behaviour can be regulated to the finest detail, but not until our consciousness evolves that we will truly be free.
Sasa