It is said that the enemy of progress is comfort. I believe PT Barnhum said that. Technically he said “Comfort is the enemy of progress” but it's my article and I’ll word things how I want. All jest aside, we as human beings have this uncanny ability to build for ourselves an echo chamber of like-minded thinkers with similar environments, this however does not mean people that agree but rather people who think along the same genres you could say, people that enjoy politics…. Know lots of people who disagree with them in regards to politics, even though someone who doesn't care for politics knows neither crowd and isn't interested in knowing them. Sports fans know other Sports fans, and Sci-Fi Lovers know other Sci-Fi Lovers. etc.
These “worlds'' virtual you could say… or at least social, are all around us, these “Bubbles”, going back to the old phrase, “you can't see the forest from the trees”. There is a lack of awareness of the other bubbles around us, for example; to one person SL is one thing.. And to another person, it's something else.. To some it's SL: the drama simulator, to others it's SL: the online Barbie Game and to another SL: the explorer and create, Minecraft for adults. For me it's SL: The Music business simulator, that's my bubble. I've been an SL musician for years, but that's not relevant because it has nothing to do with the article and I make terrible music. The point is… these bubbles, these ideas.. They ARE subjective… in nature.. SL isn't one thing.. It's the bubble you see, nothing more, it is multi-faceted beyond comprehension. SL is almost a billion-dollar real-world economy based around virtual clothing and real estate. It's also this cool game where you troll people as a half-naked lizard waifu. It's both.. and neither…
BUT what if.. What if I traveled inter-dimensionally between the multiverse from one bubble to another.. What if instead of attending a venue.. I went exploring. What if the explorers station themselves at a known troll location and heckled strangers for the “lulls” what if the Real Estate Mogul attended a few live shows, found a singer they loved, and became a fan? What If I stepped outside of my bubble into something I’ve never done or been involved in, that would be quite the adventure.
Heading back to our original thought, Comfort… this thing that says to us “This is fine, I'm good here” is the thing that halts our progress, there are experiences, there are feelings, thoughts, truths I haven't learned because I'm comfortable here in my SL bubble, I log on every day, I go to my live venues I hear my friends sing, I sing, I talk to fans, then I log off, how small is my bubble… how limiting are these restrictions I place on myself, SL IS only what I can envision it being, it's comfortable to do what I enjoy over and over.. But perhaps there is something else, something just beyond the horizon that will give me more joy than I anticipated waiting only for my own courage, not to try new things, but the courage to be uncomfortable.
Well. This week I did just that, your fearless courageous intrepid reporter here took himself outside of his bubble and I did some things I'd never done before. I went exploring.. But not just randomly sim hoping, I assigned myself a purpose, gave myself a mission if you will, I explored the history of this virtual verse we inhabit, I went to Sansara, more accurately Da Boom, SL’s oldest region and sim, I went to the mainland, explored some key iconic sites but not just looked, I didn't just travel and stare like some kind of peeping tom gawking my eye spheres on all the wonders oh no no no. I read while I traveled, I read the wiki, I read blogs about the legends and myths surrounding some of these places, I felt like I was hearing ghost stories, and my mind was never quite sure if what I was hearing was true or not, my mind began to wander about where certain people were now, I had a 1000 questions to ask the right person if I bumped into them, my quest for knowledge left me with questions I didn't know existed. My mind felt stretched, and my comfort at first had dwindled but what I gained was much much better, I was pulled from my same ole same day to day routine and thrown into an adventure, an actual adventure, like something from a story, I was the main character in an episodic tale and I felt alive.
Bubbles.. They have their purpose, and they are comfortable.. But I'm beginning to think we owe it to ourselves to poke a little tentative finger outside our bubble and begin to touch what could be. So my question to the reader is what now? And I will leave you with the immortal words of Helen Keller “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
Additional Information:
Da Boom SLURL: https://maps.secondlife.com/
More Information about Second Life's Historic “Oldest Sim”
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