Offhand Remarks Concerning New Perspectives from Cyberspace
Jose Rizal M. Reyes / poet-philosopher / February 6, 2012
in the cybergame called Mu I had struck up friendship with some persons I have never known nor seen. in that said game, we could show kindness to total strangers, both Filipinos and foreigners alike. similarly, we could quarrel with persons whom we might never meet face to face in a thousand years.
in the Mu game, each player could have a maximum of 5 different characters (wizard, knight, elf, magic gladiator and dark lord) each with each own name. that’s all we see of each other — the in-game characters that we were using. so in effect we were like disembodied spirits talking. or we were like those man-made Navii clones in the movie Avatar that were controlled and operated by humans from afar.
the 5 Mu characters each player had could only be used one at a time. unless you reveal it yourself, nobody would know the 5 characters you own. by using two characters, it’s entirely possible for you to be both friend and enemy of the same player. say, your wizard character is friendly to him even as your dark lord is the number one enemy of his guild.
in bulletin boards — especially those devoted to debates and those with heavy incidence of flaming — using two or more accounts is a common strategy for both defensive and offensive purposes. by using several accounts, your enemy can create an impression that you are being attacked by legions when it’s only one or two of them harassing you.
this peculiar experiences in cyberspace could be used as analogy or reference in understanding the unusual career of Sir Francis Bacon who, aside from writing under his own name, is said to have written also under the names of William Shakespeare, Cervantes and a few others … not to mention other outstanding activities he pursued in life (like being chief translator of the King James Version of the Bible or quietly sponsoring the colonization of America).
of course, experiences in cyberspace may also be used to get a good grasp of he identity problems that arise in soul relationships in the course of many incarnations. say, in one game, you are a latecomer and you subordinated yourself to a certain player. but in another game, you might find yourself quite advanced over the same players. the same thing could happen in two incarnations. in fact, in just one life, the switching of positions is not that rare.
FB posting: http://bit.ly/2ljd0zR
