From: Chris Case [mailto:r-anima@qb3.so-net.ne.jp]
Sent: Thursday, 01 July, 1999 8:20 AM
Kath Williamson wrote:
> > VRML-powered virtual environments where one's
> cartoon-like avatar can rub shoulders with those of
>
> I trust that everyone has encountered the wonderful "sci-fi" novel
> SNOWCRASH by Neal Stephenson . . .
I believe it may have been Stephenson who originated the term "avatar" to refer to a user's virtual persona in an online world. Certainly I can recall no occurrence of it in Gibson, Sterling, Shirley, or the other cyberpunk writers,
What I found most interesting about that book (apart from the notion of the Mafia being in the pizza delivery business) was the concept of Sumerian as the Ur-language, corresponding to the machine-level language of
computers (111010010100011100101001010001001100, or words to that effect), and thereby capable of reprogramming the human brain (cf. Leary, Lilly, and NLP).
I started to research that a bit, to find out if indeed Sumerian was still a mystery, but postponed sifting through the avalanche of data that I found, so I still don't know how plausible all that is...
I'd like to see some good links on glossolalia, and "speaking in tongues". I believe David Kubiak (one of the writers I've sampled and mixed for Zavtone) has written some interesting stuff about Pentecostal goings-on....
Does anyone on the list have first-hand experience of the cult-world of Quake and other avatar-based realities? If I hear of a virtual world where something other than combat or shopping is the modus vivendi, I might be tempted to explore more.
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