Philip Linden at The SL22B

 

 On Wednesday June 25, Philip Linden, the founder of Linden Lab and considered the creator of Second Life (Philip Rosedale in real life), was at "Meet the Lindens" at the Second Life Birthday's Astral Athenaeum. Besides those listening in on Youtube, there were well over a hundred avatars present in this intersection of four sims (too many to completely rezz as my picture shows).

 

Philip shared the stage with Bret Linden, but did almost all the talking. He would express his joy with Second Life and what people have created here over time. He would also answer a number of questions. When asked about AI, he answered Linden Lab was taking a cautious approach about introducing it, and would bring up an essay he'd written recently, "Ultraviolet Catastrophe," in which he suggested in the near future AI bots could overwhelm the Internet social media to the point people will drastically change how they use it. Other questions included possibly bringing back the original Linden World, what's going on with the browser viewer "Project Zero," helping creators in making their builds, and more. 

 

What would he have changed About Second Life? He stated it wasn't an easy answer, but he felt he would have provided more support to "democracy and groups," talking about making groups more powerful somehow. He would then give a closing message:

 

"Everybody here, all of us, should be proud to have been part of what is now more than twenty years of an experiment in demonstrating that online experiences, something you do online on your computer with other people, can actually bring people together and make them happier and healthier, as opposed to making them lonelier and angrier, which sadly seems to be what we've done with most of our technological product time in the last decade or so....

"And the hope that gives to the world is something we all need right now. The whole world needs to see that you can use technology to bring us together. It is not just a force for evil. And so I think everybody here should be incredibly proud of having been part of that experiment and hopefully continuing to be a part of it indefinitely as we carry on. So thank you." 

 

After the event officially ended, Philip stepped off the stage to chat with the audience who remained, in to a mix of avatars of all kinds, including a goat avatar, "Philip Linden is the G.O.A.T." People had more questions, including someone asking if it was possible for juries to decided the punishments of troublemakers. Philip was intrigued by the idea, but felt if it was ever considered there'd need to be a number of precautions taken. 

 

Eventually, Philip had to leave, and so people went on to other activities. 

 

There would be another "Meet the Lindens" the next day, but a pre-recorded session with Brett and Strawberry Linden. Later today at 1 PM SL time is the final "Meet" for the SL22B, a live session with many of the Moles of the Department of Public Works. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan