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Subject: PHIL: MUDs and Reality (Long Theory)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 16:28:29 PST
9212.16 e.v.
It has come to my attention that some people hold rather
tightly to the notion of a 'real world' or 'real life' (RL),
and that this is often distinguished from places known as MUDs
or things known as 'virtual worlds'.
When I first encountered this (in cyberMUDs) something struck me as
strange and ill-conceived about it. How could people be sure what
was 'real' and what was 'virtual', especially the better educated
of the lot, when philosophers had argued the point for ages and
countless mystics had suggested that what we take for 'reality' is a
mere reflection, a fragment of the real.
I took to challenging people regarding these notions and eventually,
through socratic dialogue with a few MUD philosophers, came to develop
a theory which uses the model of the MUD for modern psychology/mysticism.
Below is the present form of this theory, and I'd appreciate any feedback
that might be offered. Review, comments and disputation are
enthusiastically requested.
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The MUD as a Basis for Western Mysticism
Contents:
1. Realms and Worlds
2. Multi-User Dimensions (MUDs)
3. The CyberMUD or Cyber Realm, and the NONcyber Realm
4. Reality, Virtual Reality, and Real Life (RL)
5. The Real World and RL
6. RL and MUDs
7. InterMUD Studies
8. Entrenchment and Abstraction
9. The Science of Artistry
------------------------------------
The MUD as a Basis for Western Mysticism
by Thyagi NagaSiva
6. RL and MUDs
RL is mystical experience, since it occurs in the dimension of
Unified nonduality and it would seem to depend upon the QUALITY of
its manifestation rather than on the location of particular objects
or subjects. We may thus find RL in any MUD, since all MUDs are
contained by the real world and may include Unitive experiences.
A MUD is a world of flux, where the real is in some ways beyond change,
enveloping a 'becoming beingness' that is not usually perceived in
ordinary states of consciousness. To encounter RL, therefore, is to
become unified with the divine, the God of Platonic and Hermetic
Christians, who is both beyond and within the MUD experience, at once
transcending and subsuming it.
A MUD is the equivalent of Carse's 'finite game', in which we assume
for the purposes of the game that certain rules are unbreakable
(i.e. the subject/object division) and that our goal is to somehow 'win'.
Carse speculates that the goal of the infinite game (the real world)
is to continue playing, and no foolish notions about 'death' or
'morality' or 'identity' get in the way of an infinite player.
7. InterMUD Studies
The 'real' would seem to be approachable by examining all experiences
and coming to some determination as to their source. Modern
Science's objective examination of the nature of matter is one aspect
of this search. Mystical exploration and experimentation in the world
of the subject is another.
Searches of these types are limited by the techniques used within the
particular MUD. We shall not determine a purely physical source
for experience because experience is not entirely objective. Likewise,
we shall not discover a purely mental source because experience
is not entirely subjective.
InterMUD studies such as those by Fritjof Capra and Gary Zukav,
popular scientific explanations of the comparisons between objective
and subjective explorations, are quite important. They point out the
boundaries and connections between MUDs (not only the subject/object
MUDs but also those of academic and popular cultures).
They indicate the paradoxes, the eddies and vortices that arise
as a result of entering one particular finite game and looking at
another. They show us the similarities between worlds, how one
can be used to understand another, and how the real world surpasses
our ability to explain.