scholarly journals The Internet of Bodies—alive, connected and collective: the virtual physical future of our bodies and our senses

AI & Society ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghislaine Boddington
Keyword(s):  

AbstractThis paper is going to discuss, what will be called, ‘The Internet of Bodies’. Our physical and virtual worlds are blending and shifting our understanding of three key areas: (1) our identities are diversifying, as they become hyper-enhanced and multi-sensory; (2) our collaborations are co-created, immersive and connected; (3) our innovations are diverse and inclusive. It is proposed that our bodies have finally become the interface.

Author(s):  
Annabell Preussler ◽  
Michael Kerres

Online communities, like Twitter, attract thousands of users worldwide spending hours communicating with others via the Internet. Most platforms offer mechanisms that show the ‘rank’ or ‘social reputation’ users have gained within the social community the platform establishes. This chapter analyses the motivation of users to engage intensively from a social psychological perspective and follows the hypotheses that these status information function as a highly effective reward mechanism. The chapter describes the results of a survey that has been conducted with users of Twitter in order to find out how important it is for users to gain ‘followers’. The chapter outlines a theoretical construct that explains why users try to gain social reputation in different virtual worlds. For this, a typology of virtual worlds has been developed based on possible spill-over effects of social reputation that can be gained in virtual and real worlds.


Author(s):  
Yesha Sivan

The goal of this chapter is to two fold: first to define and expose the domain of “Real Virtual Worlds” and secondly to define the critically of Commerce within this domain. It is the assumption of this chapter that this new field of virtual worlds is destined to become a major force in 5-10 years. Much like the internet, Real Virtual Worlds, will change, enhance, and sometimes hamper how we learn, have fun, work, and perform human action. Virtual worlds are defined as an integration of 3D, Community, Creation and Commerce (3D3C). Building on this definition, we develop the “commerce” factor. My goal is to establish commerce in a critical integral part of virtual worlds. Even more, without commerce, we will probably miss the larger potential of real virtual worlds.


1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Cruz ◽  
Ricardo Fernandes

This article is based on the idea that immersive journalism in virtual worlds, specifically in Second Life, has similarities with online journalism. To sustain this premise, the literature reviewed will follow the debate about journalism on the Internet, writing and reporting across new media, and speculate on the idea that a new concept of journalism in virtual worlds is growing, as an example of a new trend in journalistic practice. Questions such as the legitimacy of new forms of journalism, and especially of the pertinence of new environments, where they may be put to practice, will be addressed. Consequently, the focus on this paper is journalism in 3D environments. The discussion will provide ideas of new trends on an old business.


Author(s):  
Shannon Roper ◽  
Sharmila Pixy Ferris

Many researchers have observed that the Internet has changed the concept of virtual communities (Barnes, 2001, 2003; Jones, 1995, 1998; Rheingold, 1993). A unique example of virtual communities is a MOO—a specialized interactive online community that is usually based on a work of fiction such as book series, theater or television (Bartle, 1990). MOOs share many of the features of multi-user dimensions (MUDs) in that both allow participants to create their own virtual worlds, but some researchers consider MOOs to be “more sophisticated” (Barnes, 2001, p. 94). In a MOO community, the participants or “players” create their own virtual communities—fantasy communities complete with world structures, interpersonal norms and social constructs. Individual participants create characters complete with environment, history and personality constructs. The characters interact and influence each other and their environments, just as do the members of real-world communities. The MOO discussed in this case study is based on acclaimed fantasy author Anne McCaffery’s book series set on the fictional world of “Pern.” The players on DragonWings1 MOO create and develop characters over long periods, often many years, leading to the establishment and creation of a strong MOO. In this article we provide a case study of the DragonWings MOO as a unique virtual community. Because the concept of virtual communities is evolving with the Internet, and no definitive understanding of virtual community or virtual culture yet exists, we have chosen to structure our analysis of DragonWings MOO around the classical anthropological definition of culture and community. A seminal definition of culture, first articulated by Tylor (1871), provides the springboard for a number of anthropological definitions widely used today. Building on Tylor, White (1959), a prominent cultural scholar, defined culture as “within human organisms, i.e., concepts, beliefs, emotions, attitudes; within processes of social interaction among human beings; and within natural objects” (p. 237). He also identified symbols as a primary defining characteristic of culture. White’s simple yet comprehensive definition yields clear criteria that lend themselves to our analysis of MOOs. At the broadest level, an application of the criteria provides support for the acceptance of the Internet as a distinct and unique culture. At a more particular level, they provide a convenient tool for the analysis of a MOO as a virtual community. In the remainder of this article, we will utilize the definition outlined above to demonstrate the features that make DragonWings MOO a unique example of a virtual community.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kurt Herold

Virtual worlds and 'the Internet' in general are highly popular in the People's Republic of China. This article will argue, though, that in contrast to non-Chinese perceptions of virtual worlds and the Internet, Chinese users tend to see virtual worlds as wholly separate from their offline existence and identity.Based on the authors research experience with the Chinese Internet, and his years of teaching Chinese students in the 3D online world Second Life, the paper will demonstrate that Chinese usage frames virtual worlds (and the Internet in general) as spaces, in which it is permissible to rebel against authority, where users receive validation and approval from their peers, and where they can escape their often stressful and boring lives. The low costs involved, and the high entertainment value of virtual worlds, combined with a perception of virtual worlds as 'gaming', 'consequence-less' and 'not serious' spaces, contributes to the high attractiveness of virtual worlds to young Chinese, which has led to a moral panic in society about the dangers of Internet or gaming 'addiction'.The article will conclude that this framing of virtual worlds is so strong in China, in particular among young Chinese, that any attempt to utilize virtual worlds for other purposes, e.g. marketing, education, etc. will have to carefully re-frame and re-situate virtual worlds for Chinese Internet users.


First Monday ◽  
2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan F. Fanton

The Internet is hailed as a democratic force freeing people from inherited orthodoxy and hierarchy. Yet some observers and visitors of virtual worlds decry the absence of the individual rights we have come to expect in a democratic society. This paradox of the Internet’s democratic promise and lack of democratic protections raises vexing legal issues. What are the rights and responsibilities of owners and users of digital media, profilers on social network sites, game players and participants in virtual worlds of all types? These issues must be addressed if the power of community is to be realized in a just and sustainable way.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-316
Author(s):  
Paweł Dybel

The article discusses philosophical poems by Stanisław Czerniak published in recent years, where a perceivably intensified motif has been the criticism of contem-porary culture more and more dependent on the Internet-based virtual worlds. The accuracy of the said criticism is pointed out, for it reveals the superficial and illusionary character of individual identity built upon those worlds. A lot of space is devoted in the article to the analysis of sophisticated “word plays”, characteristic for Czerniak’s works, imbuing it with a character that remains exceptional, distinctively individual in contemporary Polish poetry.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Van den Broeck ◽  
Sigurd Van Broeck ◽  
David Zhe Lou

One of the technologies from which we can say that it definitely and completely changed the way we work today is the Internet. Along with these many advantages, people are however also burdened with inefficient parental control, spam , pop-ups, viruses, adware and spyware to name a few. Virtual Environments (VE) are posing themselves as the future of Internet. Today, several 100s of VEs already exist, each addressing a certain target group. These VEs will have to deal with the same negative influence as the Internet of today only now presenting itself in a different package. This paper proposes a solution to guard our future Internet already from the very start from such counterproductive content.


Author(s):  
Nahida M. Imanova ◽  

The article deals with the virtual identity in the media discourse. It states that there must be information for communication to take place, including virtual communication. The object of research is text-generating language tools in Internet linguistics, and the subject is to determine their participation and role in the formation of the text. The realization of virtual communication is carried out in written and oral form of the language. Any language units such as sentences, texts, discourses (written and oral), non-linguistic units (such as graphemes, grapheme combinations, prosodic means, such as syllable stress, intonation, pause, etc.) can be considered a virtual information carrier. Virtual communication participants must use one of these tools in order to have two-way communication in the communication process. It is important to pay attention to the meaning and content of the communication. For virtual communication there must be a text that is formed for a specific purpose. Until recently, in linguistics, an independent and separate sentence was accepted as the last unit of the syntactic level in terms of hierarchical relations. In our opinion, these shortcomings, which exist at the syntactic level, gives a special impetus to the emergence of such a field as textual linguistics. In the modern world of the Internet, at a time when man-made technology is beginning to open the way to all areas of our lives, it is not surprising that a new field of linguistics � Internet linguistics � is developing very rapidly. The language of the Internet is constantly on the move; it is observed and operates in different types of communication. In the 21st century, the study of the Internet language from a systemic and structural point of view is observed. At present, linguists are focusing on the analysis of different expressions of the new media discourse in the various virtual worlds observed in the process of communication. The formation of an anthropocentric scientific paradigm in linguistics leads to the intensification of linguistic trends related to communication problems. It is noteworthy to note that when approaching communication in a semiotic plan, its consideration as an action carried out with the direct participation of linguo-semiotic means is one of the factors that led to the expansion of discourse. The virtual world is a shining example of the transition observed in the modern Internet world (explicit and implicit) on the basis of communication. The Internet is the most remarkable tool created by living things. Its impact on society and the world is undeniable. In this regard, the formation of Internet linguistics should not be considered a coincidence. Internet linguistics plays an important role in studying the influence of the Internet on language, develops under its own name in modern linguistics and forms the means of communication in different languages.


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