Many people have requested a transcript of the speech I delivered to the senior class of Saint Leo University as my Avatar, speaking from a virtual podium a couple of months ago. In their final semester they had explored the future of Virtual Worlds and it’s inevitable implications on our world culture. It was an honor to have been invited to address the Students just days before their commencement.
“Wow, you guys. I can’t thank you enough for inviting me here to be with you today. I have to admit I never expected such an invitation. I’ll admit I’m like, a little surprised, especially given that Saint Leo is the first and oldest Catholic school in your entire state. You know.. so I have to ask your faculty back there purely as a courtesy; You do know who you invited, right? Okay, good. Just checking. Wanted to make sure, you know, so I can stop waiting for the other stiletto to drop… Back when I was in school, I was always picked first for sports, like basketball and dodgeball, things like that. That was a huge ego boost- Until in the 11th grade when I figured out that it wasn’t because I was any good, but because people just liked to throw things at me and have it be legal. Just in case, I brought my face guard with me. Just in case. Can never be too safe, whether you’re playing hockey or talking to people who might possibly have smuggled in tomatoes…
Seriously, I’m so delighted to be with you today at this milestone in your lives. I think it speaks volumes that your own participation in this virtual worlds has also contributed to it’s evolution. Merely Seven years ago, few could have imagined that we’d be here together though separated by hundreds of miles, sharing the same space. Who would have thought that I would be up here addressing you, the graduating class of 2010. I certainly never did. I thought it more likely I’d be addressing a jury in my own defense. Something like that. But look at us now, World. Look at you, ready to embark on a brand new life adventure and shaping history before you set foot out that door.
It’s extraordinary, isn’t it? When I arrived here back in 1912… What? Did I just age myself? They didn’t have hair this fabulous back then, darlings. This world was an empty canvas when I first stepped foot on this terrain. It was dotted by a few landmarks built by pioneers completely unaware that they were making history in the process. The community was small, sort of like inhabitants finding their way together on some unexplored deserted island. Our experiences, our developing knowledge of this new world enriched the experiences of each other. We shared our creations freely, collaborated on new ideas and wondered how far we could go when it came to simple things like how high up we could fly, or how to make a vehicle move realistically. We were pushing boundaries and making new discoveries every single day. It was not altogether unlike your experiences over your academic life. We were learning, we were adapting. We were growing.
I think of virtual life very much like real life but in fast forward. Seven years ago, I looked like this… hysterical, yes. Hideous, yet I can’t burn it because it isn’t real. Amazingly enough I looked very much the same in real life the 80′s. I thought I was so hot then, but then someone had to take a damn Polaroid that you run into 20 years later and you think, “Wow… I look like I had a run-in with some rabid elves,” You know. But, there is some consolation. You know you can’t help but get better with age. It’s only uphill from that sorry state, honey. I could have come up here in a Hawaiian print moumou and a mullet and I’d still be proud to show you how I looked back then. It’s an improvement. Trust me. But virtual life moves much faster. It’s like Earth, but spinning at light speed. Soon we had a currency exchange, where our play money suddenly represented real life dollars. In the blink of an eye we had electricity, or what we here in pixel form call Light Sources. Then we had objects that were no longer stiff but they could move fluidly, sense wind direction, and we were making new clothes and objects out of them. Then we had environments. The skies, the sun and moon were no longer just static representations of day and night in our world but instead they became visual tools we used to capture in our images, photos or film, or simply to expand our degree of immersion. Suddenly, we had ears, and we no longer relied on only our keyboards to communicate via text; We could hear each others voice. We could have real conversations and collaborate in real time. The evolution of virtual living was happening so quickly that we simply didn’t know it. Well, we knew it was changing at a startlingly fast pace, but no one back then could have predicted that it would become what it is today. A viable, usable place for the advancement of education studies and practices, technology, brand new art forms, business, dynamic social interaction so much more. We use the words “Real Time” to describe our experiences in virtual worlds, but our “Real Time” to the metaverse is less an exchange and more of a fractal; A small part of a much greater collective which is constantly piecing itself together and we are the ones shaping it through those experiences in places like this, whether we realize it or not. I was a not. People often seem all impressed I’ve been here as long as I have. I wish I could tell you I was looking to be a world shaper, a visionary partly responsible for imagineering what the future of virtual worlds were to become. Fact is, I was looking for something to kill for some experience. I was a gamer. I came from an MMORPG that I was tired of and I wanted a new challenge for free. I was poor, and this was advertised on some site a Google search returned as a free beta. Everything that came after, on my part anyway, was purely by accident and completely unintended.
That remains today one of the single best accidents… aside from my conception… of either of my lives, real or virtual. Today, the same can be said, I’m certain, for millions around the globe who find something here that changes them in some way. Changes the way they do business. The way they interact. The way they think about other people; The way they perceive all that exists well beyond our real life borders expanding their world infinitely. Granted to some, all this probably still sounds like a new age Science Fiction Novel in the same way that computers and robotics sounded Thirty years ago. Those who spoke about them and evangelized their world changing potential were barely lucid extremists with wild ideas. People whose feet weren’t planted firmly on the ground. Now let me ask you, Do I look like a woman who has wild ideas? Sure you laugh… why are you laughing? Okay, maybe a little, but it’s those wild ideas that really mold the possibilities of tomorrows reality, virtual or not.
And in that tomorrow, when you are telling your own children about the day you sat here with this big haired skinny old Avatar – from your own living room, while they are sat in theirs, possibly half way around the planet from where you are, they won’t laugh, because those ideas, to them, will be their reality. The beginning threads of this are being woven into the fabric of our collective right now, and they continue with you. For me, I consider it an unexpected privilege to have watched it happen from such a close perspective; to have in some way been a part of it. But it’s not done yet. There remains much to be discovered and so much more to be revealed as we move forward in this mach speed, formative Meta-Era. From wherever you’re sitting, I encourage you to participate and observe with an awareness I didn’t have back then, and that is just how pivotal these times are. The groundwork is still being laid, and if I can promise you one thing, it’s that what has been done will never be undone. It is without question that the world is being changed forever, and you are a part of that.
Now, I’ll thank you each and pay you a dollar for having kept your tomatoes in your pants and purses. I’d like to thank you faculty for apparently thinking they couldn’t do any better than me. And thank you for allowing me yet another unforgettable virtual experience that I’ve shared here with you today. Good luck with your tomorrows.”