I'm currently in the middle of the book, "Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet," by MIT professor, Sherry Turkle. The copyright date is 1995, so it's a little dated now.
One chapter, "Making a Pass at a Robot" discusses MUDs(Multiple User Dungeons, Multiple User Dimensions, or Multiple User Domains, depending upon whom you ask). Prof. Turkle describes a "bot" (meaning a computer software program which serves as a robot in a MUD) known as "Julia."
I don't know if "Julia" is still running on the Internet. I rather doubt it. But I've never cared about the MUD culture. But from the book, there is a brief exchange reproduced between the bot, "Julia," and a human player, "Space-Ace" (pg. 90).
Space-Ace says, "Julia, kiss me."
Julia says, "Why, did your sheep leave you?"
Space-Ace says, "Julia, kiss me."
Julia says, "Take a long walk through an unlinked exit, Space-Ace."
There was also another player who believed "Julia" was human, but eventually had doubts. He then became confused again when "Julia" replied "I have PMS today..." to one of his questions.
Btw, I've heard of "virtual bars" in MUDs, but just wondered if anyone knows if anyone has ever built a "Virtual SC" in a MUD?
If not, it might be an interesting experiment: to create a simulated environment of one or more clubs. Or can you already do this in some version of "The Sims"?
And while researching MUDs, I found a variation is known as a MUSH, meaning "Multiple User Shared Hallucination." Which struck me as being a really good description of a RL SC!



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