Memories of a Virtual Butterfly: The World and the Screen

Abstract

world on the other side of the screen. A place where one can dream. For more than three years I have been sitting behind the computer screen, acting and reacting in parallel worlds, all running at the same time. Worlds in windows, piled up on my desktop. Windows for Netscape browsers, for downloading software, for graphical applications, for private and business correspondence, for the programming of my Web site, for discussion groups, for talk sessions with friends, and for real-time connections to virtual communities, such as beachside at MIT's MediaMOO, or Stonehenge fields at LambdaMOO. A busy digital life. The more windows I decided to open, the more I got involved in the life on the screen, and the stronger impulses I needed from reality to make me aware of its existence; the sound of sirens, the smell of food, or my name being called.