Saturday, January 13, 2007

Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians

Inspired by the first meeting of CHAT "New Media, New Space, New Places" reading group at Temple University, I came across this item that I share with you now: Nicholas Carr's blog investigation measuring one aspect in the ecology of space/place avatars at
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/12/avatars_consume.php

1. From The Fate of Place I concluded that human consciousness is one requirement for an individual to acknowledge and define place.

2. There is an ecological consequence to the maintenance of individual human consciousness that can be measured in calories that eventually produce measurable carbon dioxide emissions. Eating, interior climate control and the production of clothing have carbon dioxide results.

3. The maintenance of an individual's electronic communication desire(s), such as active internet computer device to catalogue and promote his/her human consciousness, also has a measurable carbon dioxide output.

4. Mr. Carr measures the ecological consequence for an individual to maintain an avatar in the place/space virtual world of Second Life. Previously, avatars have also had a presence and role in the paper-n-pencil virtual world Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game (DnD) now distributed electronically by http://www.wizards.com/dnd/. A paper-n-pencil DnD avatar in the mind of the player/creator required less global ecological resources to maintain.

5. What are the ecological costs of maintaining the various instances of place? I don't remember Mr. Casey presenting in The Fate of Place the ecological consequence of an individual maintaining his/her sense of place whether "real" or virtual. Perhaps this is something we should consider in future investigations of new spaces and new places.

- Steve Bull 2007-01-13 12:40

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