[HMDS] If there is no one on Global Kids Island, does it still exist?
I bet you know that old phrase: If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear, did it make a sound.
I was thinking about that earlier today in relation not just to sound, but the nature of reality versus virtual reality. Whether or not you think that fallen tree made a sound, most (but not all) can agree that at least the tree was still there. But what if the tree was on Global Kids Island? And, to make it a little more SLesque, what if we are talking about our volcano.
In other words, if there is no one on Global Kids Island, does it still exist?
What does it even mean to exist in Second Life? Does our volcano only exist if someone else experiences it? When they leave does it disappear? It seems to me the argument can be made that unless a resident experiences GK Island (which means, in essense, they use a computer program to generate a visual and auditory representation of it on their computer) then it doesn't exist. It's not like our volcano is just waiting around to be viewied - it literally does not become processed into a visual image of a volcano until someone actually looks at it. So from this perspective, non-human controlled objects in SL only exist in a purely subjective manner, when someone else experiences it. This is the opposite of the real world.
Now, a strong counter argument to this is that, actually, the thing which creates the Global Kids volcano is not its representation on a visitor's computer but, rather, the underlying code which determines how it will appear. Whether or not a visitor accesses and processes that code, the code always exists. In this case, the volcano does NOT need to be viewed to exist. In fact, no one need ever view it and yet it would always exist, in the form of the underlying code (or rules) that determine how it would appear SHOULD a resident view it.
So is our real world tree and our SL volcano the same? Well, the volcano is determined by some code, which is really to say that a specific pattern of appearance and properties which we call the Global Kids volcano is defined in some code. The volcano when viewed by a resident is full of color, and animation, and sound. But at the level of code, it is just a set of patterns, which can be reproduced in a variety of ways (the SL viewer is just one way; another might be a machine which makes us a hard copy, etc.).
Is a tree a tree or a set of patterns? Well, the tree is actully composed of cells, which are composed of molecules, which are composed of atoms, and these atoms and cells are constantly dying and being replaced. Our body is the same - every few years nearly every cell and all atoms are replaced as old ones die. Yet both the tree and our bodies appear the same (outside aging and environmental factors). Why? Because the arrangement of our parts are determined by our own organic code. In the case of humans, DNA. (I'm not sure how a tree is created). These organic codes determine the shape and form of our own patterns. So yes, a tree is a tree, but it is also just a pattern OF that tree.
So if no one sees a volcano spit lava, did it happen? If there is no one on Global Kids Island, does it still exist? In both cases, yes - in the form of unprocessed patterns.
So what is the difference between reality and Second Life, the difference between a real tree and Global Kids Volcano? While both always exist in the realm of patterns, outside any subjective observation, the tree doesn't need a viewer to exist in a fully realized state. The tree is always there, observed or not.The volcano, however, needs a viewer to make it fully real.
In other words, each time a TSL resident experiences Global Kids Island, their very experience transforms it from a potential (code as pattern) to something full actualized (the pattern processed). No one just visits Global Kids Island - they create it moment by moment.
