Speaking of time, it had a slow and slippery way of flowing on the desi place called Desi Beats on Second Life where netizens gathered to celebrate the festive (and virtual) spirit of Diwali. In the run-up to Diwali, my days in Desi Beats stuttered like dreams broken by the interruptions of Real Life (sleep, work, meals, and enforced sociability). In my one week of holidays, I clocked fewer than 10 hours per day in the virtual world (far short of the hardcore netizen’s typical 16), yet it felt to me as if I had already spent a lazy holiday season there. Virtual time was in no hurry, neither was I, so I explored the virtual grounds some more, small-talked with strangers, and read casually from the Desi Beats’ public chat logs comprising daily accumulations of scandals and silliness. And when Diwali swung near, I joined a friendly crowd in the Desi Beats backyard to watch virtual fireworks light up the midnight Second Life sky. I sat in the grass with avatars or 3D digital bodies controlled by others, reminiscing about phuljharis and chakhris, gazing up at fireworks programmed earlier in the day by Bobby and John. We applauded the best of the creations: a starburst of a thousand tiny diyas exploding out of a rocket, like golden rain streaking through the night sky.
Virtual goods such as the fireworks described above can be created, used and dumped — all with practically negligible impact on the environment. And why only virtual fireworks? We can speed up the cycle of consumerism for most goods in Real Life that can be virtualised like fireworks, and yet keep the ecological impact negligible. I say most goods because huge portions of the economy are already virtual in the sense that they serve uses that are purely mental in nature. Firecrackers going off during Diwali, for example, excite your brain (and your brain only) no more than a thousand tiny diyas programmed to explode out of a virtual sky. And here may lie our biggest hope for solving the ecology dilemma of the Supreme Court, and for decoupling economic growth from ecological impact. ashish.sharma@bsmail.in
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