Me by Thompson Mel;

Author:Thompson, Mel; [Thompson, Mel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2022-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

5. Living in cyberspace

DOI: 10.4324/9781315710266-6

If only Plato had lived to witness the arrival of the internet, he would have realized that the twenty-first century has given an entirely new significance to a story he told in Book 2 of his Republic: the story of the Ring of Gyges. Gyges is a shepherd in the service of the king who, following a storm and earthquake where his flock is feeding, looks down into a chasm that has opened up in the ground, and sees there a bronze horse and within it the body of a man, wearing nothing but a ring. He takes the ring, puts it on and, by chance while at a meeting with his fellow shepherds, finds that by turning it he becomes invisible and then by turning it back becomes visible again. Arranging to go to the court as a messenger, he uses this new power of invisibility to seduce the queen (we are not told how this is achieved, but it would be intriguing to know the sexual attractiveness to be found in invisibility!) and, with her help, to kill the king and take the throne. Plato’s point in recounting this story is to compare the just and the unjust person, supposing that there were two such rings and one were given to each. The fundamental question is this: would you retain your moral principles if you knew that you could take whatever you liked with impunity? Would you resist the temptation to use that power to enhance your own position? Are we kept moral only by fear of consequences?

At long last, we have found Gyges’ ring again, not in a chasm, but in cyberspace. But the ring takes a new form now; it offers the power to become an avatar in the virtual world Second Life. But for those who have not yet fallen for this ultimate temptation to reinvent themselves, let me explain. In a virtual world you create for yourself an alter-ego, an avatar. Avatars in Hindu mythology are incarnations of the deities on earth, but these cyberspace avatars work the other way round: they are based on the earthly and aspire to be heavenly. Constructing your own avatar, you decide whether you would like to be male or female; you design your body, your figure, your hair colour, your eyes. You can make yourself attractive to the same or opposite sex, as the fancy takes you. You become whatever you would most like to be, shape up the image of your avatar with the help of a little software, and then go walking in a virtual world. The Second Life website claims that “The Second Life world is a place dedicated to your creativity” and points out that your avatar is “your persona in the virtual world” and that you should not worry if your avatar does not quite live up to what you would like to be, because “you can change your look at any time”. It offers you a new, virtual start, socially and physically.

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