The+Amricks


 * R****R**
 * NOTICE: GROUP MEMBERS NEED TO WRITE THEIR PAPERS!!!**

===__Notice: The Amricks will be giving our group presentation on Wednesday, April 23. It's imparative to have all of our typed papers due by this friday and be done with our powerpoint. Be there Thrusday for this will be the last day to touch up anything!!!!!!!!!__===

= Amricks = Ultravioletshineblind Hobble Laverisius Afarensis Fatherland Messerchmitt WhittyWingtips  RichardOglebee

Whitty Wingtips Power Point

Laverisius research project Fatherland Messerchmitt Research Project Ultravioletshineblind Hobble Reseach Project RichardOglebee Research Project WhittyWingtips Research Project 
 * Note: The agreed meeting times of the group are every Thursday at 5:00 and every Sunday at 9:00. If a member cannot make one of these meetings it is important that a notification is posted in advance.**

The nature of our study will be focused primarily on the negative and positive qualities of SL. That is, what illustrates a utopia and what brings it closer to reality? And on a larger scale how all these points correlate to the larger issues outlined in the course. Is SL what Milton Friedman was longing for: would he have considered SL a dream come true or an irrelevant video game? Since there are many people contributing to the overall research, it is proper that we leave open considerable room for each participant to find something of true interest to donate to the larger body of work. Below are some of the ideas we have come up with.

__SL: A World of Illusion__ I. A World Without Insecurity? (utopia) [Whitty Wingtips] II. Individual Freedom? [RichardOglebee] III. Homelessness--could it be a common thread? [Laverisius Afarensis] IV. Explotative nature of virtual labor. (symoblizing a no wage-law state) [Ultraiviolet Hobble] V. Are we only what the system allows us to be? (The Tyler Durden Story) Fatherland Messerchmitt]

__Class System in SL__ I. Class distinctions? (do they exist in this permission culture) [Fatherland Messerchmitt]/semi-incorporated II. Yes, a solid permission culture; but is there any leniency? III. Modalities or Shackles: How many communities are using the system to advance themes outside market and social networking--for educational purposes and other knowledge/information related uses? [RichardOglebee]

Above are many ideas, some tentative, some more thoroughly thought about. Any of these can be freely used. The overall work of the group, howver, will have to be reduced to one formal question. I think we should keep it realatively simple, such as: What problems can we pull from SL to show how changes in the concept of property have affected the design of the system and how extending laws to protect ownership and property work simultaneously to make individuals bear heavier chains? If another member can think of a better question or a more simple one, please post it!

We have agreed to advance many of the themes above listed. Our intentions are to point out the negative and positive qualities of Secondlife, and to show how they correlate with the material studied in class. Such a broad annalysis, having many factors, is important. For we feel that a more marginal approach will give us more of a solid understanding of the leading ideas that of our time and how individuals are conforming and adjusting themselves to them.

OVERALL RESEARCH The various research topics that were explored--which have been outlined above--work to form a 'seamless whole' inasmuch as the course material worked to form a seemless whole by incorporating a number of authors raising different, interweaving yet separete points that draw back to a common theme--the importance and the need for strong Communities. When taken together, they accompany and bolster a more replete study of the capitallistic system and the ideology behind it. In becoming acquainted with the different critiques on Capitalism we were made aware of the structure of governance that has developed around it and the injuries that have resulted on multiple levels. We sought to evaluate Secondlife in the same manner. Be it of note that each author had explored and exposed myriad factors that are either intentionally concealed or obscurely noticeable. These hidden factors were as much our concern as they were for the authors. In light of all this, we resarchers became authors ourselves, attempting to give a very open and broad critique of Secondlife when pulled together, a more rigorous project perhaps and one that was not necessary nor manditory but important, beleivng each of the arguments raised by the authors are of equal importance and should be taken in--in order to get a full-grasp of what is actually happening. We became comfortable identifing these hidden factors as being "blindspots." The "blindspots" were maintained in Berry's argument by statistics; in Klein's argument by collusion (corporate or governmental); in Dewey behind facts which were only as good as the ideas that supported them; in Lessig's argument by extending property rights and thus the concept of property. In our critique, as group as well as in individual research, our goal was to incorporate many of the "blindspots." We felt a need to point out the negatives as well as the positive, just as each author had throughout the duration of the course, and begin with the negative aspects first and finishing with the positive--that is, with the ability and the need of the Community.

With what has been said, Whitty Wingtips explored insecurity: a theme that is perinnial in all the books but is called out and assessed in //Break Through// and //The Unsettling of America//. Ultraviolet Hobble explored exploitation which has its strongest assessment in //The Shock Doctrine//. Fatherland explored individual conformity which is most expressly seen in //Fight Club// but likewise carries forth in a permission culture (//Free Culture//). Laverisius has embodied all of these concepts and themes in order to develop the idea of "homelessness." Oglebee concludes the research project by winging around the idea of Community and how it is developing and gaining strength. So how these themes are presentd and ordered is important because it reveals or rather mocks the method of evaluation necessary to understand the themes of the course: the nature of Capitalism and Democracy, the place of the Individual under the system, and the challenge between Public and Private spheres.