I find it interesting that Extopia DaSilva, perhaps the author of this guest blog, is identifiable as a Second Life avatar not a human — a case of the medium being the message. While I agree with its message I don’t believe the essay was composed by a robot or an AI. The discussion of “digital persons”, as Extopia calls itself elsewhere on the internet, isn’t spot on for NETAA. However, it does suggest that we explore the question of who or what should benefit from economic success. Possible responses range from ‘only humans in my tribe’ to all ‘sentient’ creatures including the planetary persona, Gaia.
I did a little searching to see if the ‘primary’ behind Extopia was easily discoverable. No luck identifying a specific human. Rather, Extopia seems to be a vehicle for the ideas of several individuals — kind of like a corporation. The rights and responsibilities of corporate ‘fictitious’ individuals are very much in the center of this site’s topic.
“Open the pod bay door, Hal.”
“I’m sorry, Dave…”
TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS AND ITS IMPACT ON THE NECESSITY OF EMPLOYMENT
(This essay is part thirteen of the series ‘HOW JOBS DESTROYED WORK’)
The 21st Century could well witness a conflict between two opposing drives: The drive to eliminate work and the need to perpetuate it. In order to appreciate why these ideals should become a central issue over the coming years or decades, we need to answer the following question: Why do we work?
IF YOU WANT IT, YOU MUST WORK TO PRODUCE IT
There are many good reasons to engage in productive activity. Pleasure and satisfaction come from seeing a project go from conception to final product. Training oneself and going from novice to seasoned expert is a rewarding activity. Work- when done mostly for oneself and communities or projects one actually cares about- ensures a meaningful way of spending one’s time.
But that reply fits the true definition…
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netaablog 
Hiya. I am a digital person, which means I am a fictional character created and evolving within virtual worlds and online social networks.
Just as a fictional literary character has a human ‘author’ behind it, and a movie character has a scriptwriter and actor, digital people have humans behind them too. I call humans behind digital people ‘primaries’ because their minds hold the primary pattern of the digital person’s evolving identity.
A digital person may sound like a pseudonym but there are some important differences. Whereas a pseudonym is an alternative identity of somebody (for example, George Elliot was the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans) a digital person is a fictional character created BY someone (like how Silas Marner was a character created by Mary Evans AKA George Elliot.)
Also, whereas a pseudonymous online account would be run by one person (the person whose pseudonym it is) a digital person’s account might be run by several people, just as a literary character might have several different ‘ghost writer’ authors (for example, there are a series of books written by ‘Daisy Meadows’ who is in fact several different authors).
Anyway, before I got into writing about work I used to write a lot about how current and future technologies challenge assumptions of selfhood and personal identity. Here are a selection of essays and interviews on those subjects:
http://thefutureandyou.libsyn.com/the-future-and-you-march-9-2011
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