Cyberspace and Societal Norms-Article:Rape in Cyberspace

Julian Dibell writes with intriguing questions concerning the corollary of violence in cyberspace.

The article discusses virtual rape that took place in the digital world of LambdaMOO. As a factious character, Mr. Bungle committed a heinous crime in a community with no boundaries other than implied. His entrance and development of the VR room in which the attack occurred leaves one to question the purpose of the user. There were no doors when the user exu entered and was violently raped with a knife. And the inability by its VR community to stop or control their surroundings is even more complex. Mr. Bungle went on to perpetrate others in a vicious manner and was free to rein hell upon whomever he saw fit. The community, outraged after witnessing one avatar being violently raped by another, mounted a debate on what to for about Mr. Bungle and what, if anything, did they have control over. Not having developed any sort of legal structure and any form of retribution, Mr. Bungle would remain inherently dangerous. They spoke of “virtual castration” and “toad-ing” him through the efforts of the Wizard. With the ability to modify and change, or eliminate Mr. Bungle they carry the ultimate power. The community made several suggestions to the likes of a lynch mob; their message was clear, Mr. Bungle need to be brought to some form of retribution. The Wizard, acting alone, systematically eliminated Mr. Bungles through Toad-ing. The concern is who has the power, who ultimately decides what is violent, to what extent will the community tolerate violence, and should any one entity have that ultimate power. My question would be, “Who will stop the Wizard if he/she becomes a Mr. Bungles?” He was killed off, banished in a sense from ever returning. Then came the most unusual behavior out of the group I saw, when Mr. Bungle returned in another form and walked into the VR room of the very people he violated. The reaction at first was very cautionary but the community eventually allowed him to observe as he was not a threat yet. It reminds me of conditioning. The crime of rape, although heinous, becomes diluted by the very behavior of the community itself. Should he be killed off again? Would he continue with his past behaviors or was he just merely a voyeur, waiting for post-gratification from the community? The women who were subjected to his initial attacks had ongoing mental health issues in their physical presence and ultimately decided he needed to go, as well did the community. But he left behind a virtual presence, an empty room where he was registering as asleep. Oddly enough, his room was visited periodically to see what, if anything was happening. Had he returned? Was his avatar sleeping? Why would anyone return to the scene, a violent virtual hell to look?

My own thoughts on this are communities, virtual or otherwise, share the same commonality, inquisitiveness. We seem to want to know the dirty details maybe to overcome our fears that it can’t ever happen to us. Society has been led down the path of virtual voyeurism where they can look and investigate. Media is like an addiction, revealing human suffering to the level of absurdity. My own experience with this allure of media was during the Gulf War. I was astounded for the first time war could be piped into my living room 24/7, and I could not control how it affected me. I watched for endless hours as people, homes, and countryside’s were destroyed. I was afraid if I turned it off I would not be part of the current events or be well informed. I was addicted to the commentators and the blow by blow descriptions of death and destruction. My life became stressed as I was consumed with this new found media experience. The Vietnam War was censored and only governmental approved versions hit the airwaves. Eventually, I had to turn off the noise box and set boundaries for me. I think the experience is similar to those in the community that witnessed the rape virtually. The fascination with unbelievable new experiences has us chasing virtual ambulances, wanting to witness or understand. I am not sure but it needs some addressing virtually in how we establish communities and whether we allow total access or govern our behaviors and others. Without even thinking, new communities seem to establish VR worlds in which they have exclusive, understood norms carried over from their physical world. Unlike Blue Laws, where they are on the legal books but never enforced, MOO’s seem to lack some hierarchal governmental controls among users, or at least they use to. As always, society learns to establish a sense of order and what is acceptable in life. It is good these things are under scrutiny and how they affect all in the virtual world. Whether cyber crime can be stopped or restrained is anybody’s guess. Who should be responsible?  Why?

Youth, Downloading, and theft Oh My! 375 Tapscott

In the section, “In defense of our future” I found #5 on the question of youth encouraged to steal interesting. Tapscott states that the industry is operating on the old model of ownership and that it makes no sense to sell music under the current formats. One thing that really is not addressed is that industry standards have been derived out of greed for one, that’s apparent but moreover, artists have suffered from the industry giants. Some artists I have heard of had their works ripped off by producers, industry corporate, and by other artists despite ethical protocols. Imagine writing a song, script, or play that went to the top ten, box office hit, or Broadway hit! You would be enraged if someone ripped your stuff. This often leaves them out of royalties and credit for their work product and creative license. This falls along the same lines because downloading music and ripping work product are essentially the same, just different degrees. They share a common thread as one is derived out of the other. . It matters!

So ownership and illegal downloading? Where does the industry stand? I agree with Tapscott on a monthly fee (much like satellite radio) would resolve the issue when it comes to music. That would eliminate the need to borrow or share or pirate if you will. I think it went unconstrained with the beginning of the Internet and music. Going after downloader’s is ludicrous and not economical.
As for cheating and plagiarism and the internet I think it is rampart among many age levels. Not just the youth at college as some might think. Working in different industry, I saw many out right copy others work and pass it off as their own to meet deadlines. There is not real system of checks and balances if the corporate office does not follow up. My English 102 Teacher at CBC had a great system on essay’s and research papers. If she suspected you plagiarized, she used some program that she just typed in your questionable paragraphs and it would usually show up connected to an author or website. I think plagiarism is just as abundant as it ever was but is easier to get caught now. It speaks to character as well. If that is who you are, then it will manifest itself throughout your life anyway, whether you get caught or not. And, if you plagiarize the wrong person, you might get sued! Ouch!

Turkle-Can you hear me now Article Forbes Magazine 475 Blog#6

Sherry Turkle describes a scene from a conference she attended in Japan on robotic technology in 2007. The ballroom was packed with audience members engaged with checking email, downloading, and surfing the net all the while the main speaker being ignored for the most part. At times she indicated the audience would lower their laptop out of “digital courtesy. The networking was what she described as being “tethered “ to one’s virtual identity and that it counted more than a physical presence.


She is referring to the how the internet has provided space for “projection of self.” She goes on to say that people found ways to explore the mundane side of their lives and act out fantasies, have virtual sex, let the inhibited side out to play in a certain manner. One caveat of the instant messaging, multitasking, and cell phone communication world is that we have become a culture that is not making time for uninterrupted thinking. Turkle equates this to living in contradiction with life as we so quickly must acclimate to the technological world. She makes a good point of some unable to discern when it is time to pull back from their screen presence (referring to the Blackberry explosion) despite the demands of technology to maintain connectivity.

When addressing the issue concerning youth, the problem is even more critical. The younger generation has not known the sense of independence and has never had the experience of being alone (regarding connectivity) according to Turkle. Where once adolescents relied on peers for feedback, now do so through instant messaging and through cell phones. She shows a relationship with technological feedback to being reformatted to a small screen and a “flattened out” process. The fact that privacy is a major concern with older generations is not an issue with the younger individuals. Turkle suggests the youth are more concerned with socializing and don’t care if that equate to compromising confidentiality to maintain social presentation. The more exposure and gratification is well worth the latter.

Turkle also refers to “Split attention” as more people are connected while talking, driving, during business meetings, visiting, attending classes, or even during dinner with their families. She states the behavior is now quickly becoming “normalized.” Life has changed immensely as we can have avatars stand in for representation; we order almost everything online, thus avoiding having to take time to shop physically. We engage with synthetic voice-recognition protocols to handle troubleshooting and administrative issues through telecommunications. Turkle states that life in forever linked to objects and we interact.

She addresses the issues of how we interact today with computers, how or what they’re used for, and where we are going in the future. Whether society becomes more alienated from physical presence or that technology will enhance and change how we share the physical and virtual worlds will depend on our relationship with machines.
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0507/176.html

Nakamura Chapter 5-Racial Representation

Nakamura’s referencing of racial representation on the internet according to the PEW survey is troubling. It brings up several issues: The lack of emphasis on Asian position as a culture, and how they use the internet, social spaces, ethnicity, and gender as Nakamura mentions in the introduction (pg. 10). Pew’s survey characterized Asian’s as consumers (pg. 172), thus limiting the responses to what types of things they engage in. She suggests the study failed to address cultural production and types of graphical expression to name a few. This meager representation often creates bias and clearly adds to the digital divide. Pew’s survey’s for their demographics are done primarily through telephone communications and on paper. What are missing are the monolingual Asian populations according to Nakamura. With Asian’s considered the “wired” minority on the internet, this portion of the culture goes unaccounted for. The U.S. Census is attempting to change the way surveys are conducting in population representation and target both non-English Spanish and Asian cultures. But representation on the internet is that they’re the majority is an erroneous belief according to Nakamura. She suggests survey taking should encompass minority participation such as bulletin boards, activist sites, social media spaces for a more accurate depiction of internet use. She asks the question of social spaces and whether representation can be constructed culturally. The theory she suggests is that distinct nuances and concepts need to be developed in order to assess people of color and cultural diversity. This would give identity to the face diversity and culture.

Helicopters and Parenting 375

When I heard the term “Helicopter Parenting” in the second section of Tapscott’s book, I cringed. Tapscott talks about parent-child connection of the Net Generation. I hope these parents are in small numbers! As described: A parent who hovers over his or her kids and intervenes with teacher and employers, according to Tapscott. The parents, from the time the child’s young, track their children’s progress, test scores, homework, and attendance. This part I can agree with. Accountability wise, schools do poorly with attendance with the so called “Becca” bill, leaving kids falling into the abyss. The law is useless as for the most part in never enforced. I have not heard of any parent on the 6:00pm news in hand cuffs for being in violation. Back to helicopters, parents of these Net kids need to let go a little. Overzealous parents can potentially limit their kid’s ability to make decisions on their own. I am to presume these parents will always be there when something needs to be attended to? I think I am taking this too personal... (Ooops!) Family involvement is one thing but going to your kid’s interview? Arranging for interviews? Negotiating salaries? I am a firm believer in preparing kids for life but letting them jump off the board sometimes is a good thing. I have helped raise two nephews at different formative ages. The most important thing I learned was teach them how and let them try…Often I stood not so far away but I did not intervene. If they fall, help them up, let them go and try again...It’s a rite of passage for youth to learn how to be adults. There is an extreme to my argument as well. I worked for Vision Quest in the Arizona desert. It was based on the Native American rite of passage (Don't try this at home). The boys released to the custody of the program, would have to climb a thirty foot telephone pole. They wore safety harnesses of course. They had to stand, feet together, arms out, and jump (leap of faith junk) towards a rope out a great distance. If they failed, back up the pole again. If they succeeded, they were a man. I watched as this gangbanging kid (about 13), who was tougher than hell; cry uncontrollably as he was so afraid. He could not become a man that day or any other. He ran away the next day and they chased him down with horses and brought him back...Punishment was meted out by his peers. The point is there should be a central point on this continuum from extreme helicopter parents to making a kid jump off a pole to prove he is a man. Controlling or making them conform to black and white thinking is ludicrous. Tapscott has good points on collaboration with family and the security it provides, but there is a limit to parents living by-proxy through their children. I think it is a big issue today…

Nakamura-Whiteness

Nakamura talks about the visual culture on page 97 as, “long excluded non-Asian people of color, in particular Latinos and African Americans…,” She goes on to talk about the Matrix Trilogy (namely the second and third films) as dealing with “whiteness” in the visual field of new media. Putting into conflict the issue of whiteness generates the same conflict for new media, the creator. Looking back through chapter 3, it was evident that not much has changed over the years with depiction of color, explicitly blacks. Lawrence Fishburne (Morpheus) appears as almost a revelator and exposes Neo to the truth. Despite his laudable role or portrayal as dominate black character, he is still a support, or sustains Keanu Reeves character. What I ascertained was that Nakamura relates racial dominating influence can’t help but permeate the relationship between machine culture and the subject it interfaces with. There has always been a lack of black dominated roles in media and they are predominately clichéd. Looking to Aliens 3, Charles Hutton portrays a heroic yet profoundly disturbed individual on a prison planet that saves Sigourney Weaver from ultimate sexual violence and death. His portrayal supports the starring actress yet cast him in the too often ethnic stereo typing seen in new media and well as old. This unnecessarily conveys a cultural dichotomy that invades every facet of media and computer interfacing. Another influential movie that was my first real indoctrination into the racial divide in film was “A Dry White Season,” by Euzhan Palcy. I was fortunate to be working with my uncle at CBC studios during the music editing, and met some of the cast members and the director. My experience with Apartheid and racial representation in film were null. I was quickly schooled in what it meant to be black in a white world, from a black country in turmoil. My perceptions were so off base (naïve), some due to age but also ignorance. Luckily, I spent long hours watching and learning about how film portrays blacks and the racial implications. I did not realize it at the time but it gave me some early insight and has helped me understand Nakamura. What I did learn and Nakamura points out is that information and the interfaces we use to portray text and visual images are the perception of the visual culture.

Two Generations 375

The point of “Two Generations: One Thriving, One Failing is of great interest to me. If the digital divide wasn’t wide enough, the educational failure in this country will far surpass technology. Tapscott describes the Net Generation as the most educated Americans to come. The down side is with the minority populations. Money often follows the wealthier neighborhoods as they rely on antiquated funding resources. Funding is based on property taxes. Home ownership is significantly reduced in poor, rural areas as well as intercity. Large industry failures such as the fall of Aerospace, Automotive, and other economic industries further affect the loss of home ownership. In the 1970’s, Boeing literally left whole neighborhoods empty and thousands out of work, and schools suffered. This pattern today is more relevant with the lack of jobs and the housing crisis. Who is going to pay the property taxes? What schools will remain open in these affected areas?


The research study indicated whites in suburban areas graduated at a 76% and blacks at 53.4%, and Hispanics at 57.8%. The numbers are not astonishing as there was a shift in the early 1990’s to education reform. One of the worse slogan’s of the Bush era was “Leave no child behind.” The biggest impacts I saw working as a vocational counselor was young adults with a lack of Adult Basic Education skills. Standardized testing led to the “teaching to the test” and in our state, to the WASL. There aren’t many WASL jobs I know of…One thing it did was shed light on the lack of funding and performance issues plaguing the nation. Achievement was tested through bench marks, giving the same tests, over and over. Those schools who failed lost federal funding. In addition, teachers are severely underpaid across America, rural or suburban. They also discovered teachers without credentials teaching in the south. Even worse, schools in the south (Following Katrina) were found to not have books, adequate water or bathroom facilities. Some teachers have to maintain educational requirements yearly, yet there is minimal support for the social issues they face in schools. This barely scratches some of the issues facing teachers who are not provided with proper technology or support to adapt to a technological world. I could keep going…

How can kids today engage or re-engage in education when standardize testing and lack of modern curriculums are widespread? Teachers cannot be effective with clay tablets! The system fails on many levels. I agree with Tapscott in that the shift from teacher to facilitator of education is important. Ridding the system of “we have always walked uphill both ways” needs to go. The rise in charter schools and home schooling speaks volumes of parents and educators being fed up with the public system. The best teacher I ever had started the year off with giving everyone A’s. She told us,” Now you have to learn how to keep and use it to your benefit.” At first I thought she was daft. I worked harder learning that year because I had felt like I was part of something. I was hooked! Little did we all know learning to keep it was twice the work. I thought the teacher had an excellent idea in that students will work harder if they have stake in the outcome. The current system is broken beyond repair and change is needed to integrate technology, teachers, and students into a unified system…I will step off the soap box!

Burning Chrome Blog #4

In choosing Burning Chrome, I found myself with questions of cyber security and how we address the issue. Gibson’s book seems as if it written authentically and happing in present day. I found the first short, Johnny Mnemonic, paralleled our modern digital world in a sense. Johnny alluded to having thousands of megabytes stashed in his head yet being unable to retrieve them. He referred to himself as being on a “idiot/savant’ basis. He was trapped with carrying ultra-sensitive information that could cost him his life to transmit.


I think about information with the purpose of going across secured links (We hope), that transcends the ordinary man’s understanding (Or at least mine). Online banking suggests encryption scrambles data and that when the VeriSign Secured Seal is present, the transmission is safe. What is puzzling is what I don’t know about site certificates and their legitimacy. As a digital society, we are trusting with our personal/public information in hopes of never being violated or intruded upon. And what would happen if information was mistakenly placed in our possession? Information is the new currency today, and those who have it become much more valuable. Is this the new norm of the information culture? Far scarier is that Johnny is a courier, a slave to the customers for whom he serves. Ralfi is the one who is storing the information in Johnny’s head, and wants him dead. The entities that disseminate information also store it securely, or do they?

Often I hear of hackers infiltrating banks, credit cards accounts, the private business sectors, and government institutions and installations. Information is a commodity on any market, like the Lo-Teks, Johnny ultimately plays for the underworld. It is easy to contemplate how remarkably insecure one can feel without the knowledge of the new technologies, and even then it is allusive.

I read about the future of cyber security on “Wired,” and reviewed their article on Dual Perspectives. Their article was suggestive of Gibson’s book “Burning Chrome.” The Hackers, criminals, and thieves of the digital world are playing on both sides. Security and crime crosses some blurred boundaries, also representative of cyber space.
I wonder about the shape our culture will take in the future, and what will that mean in both our physical and digital worlds.

Blog #4 Assignment-Gibson

Hi to all,
I will be reading "Burnt Chrome" for the weekly blog.

Ground Hog Day!

The mysterious groundhog Punxsutawney Phil has emerged to see his shadow in Pennsylvania once again. My guess is that he has not embarked on a journey to the most dubious Columbia Basin and immersed him/herself in the balmy 49 degree weather in January and February thanks to El Nino; predictions are in the 50 degree range for at minimum 30 days according to NOAA. My daffodils are coming up before the crocuses, and my iris’s are popping up. This is just wrong on many levels. My garden is perfectly timed to bloom all season long with the precise colors…at the precise time…I believe this is due to technology advancing from Y2K…We forgot to set our computers to roll over to double 00? The flipping sky is falling? The pencil? What the? Well, my spring garden is out of whack and El Nino is taking the rap…Poor kid! For the fear mongers, the turn of the century possibly has thrown us off the 23.5 axis and we are all going south…lol:)

The Dot Matrix 375 Better Pencil

Writing and technology of any kind is intriguing. Granite (Pun Intended), clay writing would be the most grueling and mundane thing on the planet, and everyone would stop writing for the sake of sanity. Thoreau was a good man in inventing a great pencil...Who would of thought of how much technology went into making a pencil? Looks pretty simple...I myself like the pencil, preferably Dixon Ticonderoga black #2…Tastes the best…I prefer the pencil for originality when constructing a short story or paper. I find certain liberation in the connection with pad and pen. I then turn to the computer and repeat the same thoughts only with more distinction. It is an odd method but one I have grown accustom to as I was around before the word processor, or personal computer.
I find it amusing that society found fear in the typewriter. I owned an IBM Selectric and a word processor, and I have to say that Correct ‘O tape was pretty awesome…That Tap, Tap, Tap, sounding like an automatic stapler gone mad was state of the art! The down side was everyone in the office knew you were a poor typist if you backspaced all the time… The dot matrix printer was the most obnoxious of them all…It might have been a rivet gun…Teletypes were quieter with their sound proof enclosures…No Luddites smashing those damn things!
I don’t think handwriting will go obsolete ever…Not unless they bring back clay! I have voice activated software that types faster than I talk…hard to believe…But I still sit in the night, writing with my pencil…Jotting thoughts down…Letter writing I think is becoming a lost art…Composing and conveying by hand to one another whether on a technical basis or just for friendship seems difficult for some…
I think the digital future of writing will be amazing…Hopefully we will just talk to some interface and the thing will actually work! Some things are really stupid though! The digital fridge for instance! Any of my appliances start calling my on the mobile and there will be some short circuiting going on…I am not Mr. Gates! I can tell when the machine no longer functions or starts puking water on the floor…My Grandmother had a Chrysler New Yorker that told her the door was ajar and when the oil or gas was low. What it failed to do was warn her when the carburetor caught fire and to get the hell out! She was able to see smoke and run…Without the computer…I am digressing…I love the digital world but I am not logging onto Tide, or calling up the shampoo company for advice even if you think my hair could use it…There is always those that will say the it is the end of life as we know it…Maybe they should get a job or something…I still chew on pencils and type…