Virtual Jailbird

Virtual reality players need to heed mama's warning to "play nice" or else they could end up in jail. Two Japanese co-workers hooked up their avatars for some pretend time in the digital matrix but when the man divorced without warning, the woman murdered her estranged VR spouse. Jailed on suspicion of computer hacking, the femme fatale faces up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
As kids, we pretended to shoot each other with our lethal index fingers and I had teenage friends that sank deep into their imaginations with Dungeons and Dragons. Even adults reenact battles in historic parks. This woman took fantasy to a new level when she pretended to kill her cartoon husband. Her fault is encroaching reality by manipulating her opponent's software.
Sabotaging another person's gear is no way to win a game and her efforts should have stayed within the confines of the computer screen. Why not dream up a hot new male avatar to make the ex-hubby jealous? Or go for the virtual plastic surgery to make herself desirable and unattainable?
I don't know how the Japanese correctional system functions, but one wonders if the jailed vixen can take Mario through a Bonus Round to earn coins for bail.

Comments

  1. Inspector ClouseauOctober 24, 2008 at 10:22 AM

    This is a very interesting comment. I've often mentioned that instead of evaluating human conduct in terms of the last 25-50 years, that we should always look at it a minimum of 5,000 years, and preferably for the preceding 13,000 years. Conduct throughout humankind has remarkable similarities when viewed from such an historical perspective. It is just the means or the vehicle, or the mechanism that changes.

    I've actually been thinking about that alot since attending Converge South, a regional blogging and social networking / New Media conference here recently. Some people see these tools in a very limited manner. Others take a much broader view of what can be accomplished with the tools.

    As is the case with all technology, there is also the recognition that it can be used for both good and bad. There are no technological advances which are solely good or solely bad.

    ReplyDelete

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