Response 6, Stelarc and Second Life

In my opinion, from what I have read about Stelarc, I feel that he would view Second Life as a beginning of what is to come. From the article "Parasite Visions:
alternate,intimate and involuntary experiences" part of the introducing quote gives a good explanation of Stelarcs view when he explains:

"Just as the Internet provides extensive and interactive ways of displaying, linking and retrieving information and images it may now allow unexpected ways of accessing, interfacing and uploading the body itself. And instead of seeing the Internet as a means of fulfilling out-moded metaphysical desires of disembodiment, it offers on the contrary , powerful individual and collective strategies for projecting body presence and extruding body awareness. The Internet does not hasten the disappearance of the body and the dissolution of the self- rather it generates new collective physical couplings and a telematic scaling of subjectivity. What becomes important is not merely the body's identity, but its connectivity- not its mobility or location, but its interface...."

From this and other readings on Stelarc I believe that he would feel that Second Life was a great program. In this passage he talks about what is to come about between the Internet and human relationship and Second Life is taking us there. He talks about disembodiment and projecting oneself, which I feel is Second Life. On Second Life you have the opportunity to create your cyborgs hair color, eye color, clothing style, body build and more. On top of that you are the personality behind the computer animation that may or may not resemble your true self.In that sense I do not think Stelarc wishes for people to become different from who they are or pretend to be something they're not, but rather his view is to better the already existing body to become a better body of the original, not a different one. From what I gathered from his views I feel that Stelarc believes that interrelating the human body and the Internet mentally and physically will create a "super-human", one who can dominate both the real and the un-real.
With Second Life in relation to Stelarc and his added parts, you can create that in Second Life, you can make yourself whoever or whatever you want to be. Stelarc wants to bring that ability into the real. How he talks about connectivity being very important, he strives to connect the natural and unnatural or real and unreal together making it become reality.
He also talks about protruding body awareness and in Second Life, at least for me, I felt that it was difficult to portray what my real body might do in certain situations, but it absolutely tried to give me the opportunity.In Second Life many subscribers use it as their real, every day interrelation with others, with humans. But the question must come up that are they really human then? Or are they like Stelarc and see that connecting oneself to this alter being, or cyborg of oneself, makes that person more alive, it actually brings them life. Several users of the program have real relationships in Second Life, as well as make there real living off of the program. In many ways it seems as tho without this Second Life program many people wouldn't have a "real" social life or even a way to support their "real" lives.
We also must define real. Stelarc makes the un-real, real and believes the un-real can be real for some. Interrelating the two shall bring us to a new place in society, above who and what we are now. Advancement of the world normally starts right here, with people like Stelarc, pushing the limit of the body, mind and soul. At one point in time people thought that several medicinal prostectics were strange and unusual but look how much they have become a norm to so many trying to remain "normal" in today's world. Stelarc brings the un-norm to us and shows the soon it may no longer been seen as weird, strange and unusual to have an ear on your arm, a third arm or maybe even another pair of legs!
With my experience of Second Life I feel that this quote does say a lot. While I was using the program I felt absolute disembodiment and I did feel like I was in a chat room almost but able to walk around. You can bounce around from island to island, which to me seemed like moving from chat room to chat room,all just to find someone interesting to talk to, or something to do. Second Life brings me to become more apart of my surroundings and the others I am connecting with. I feel that in Second Life, even if the persons' cyborg isn't an exact replica of themselves, you still get more of a feel for them. Second Life was a completely new program to me, and as first I found it weird strange and unusual, but now after living in Second Life for a little while now and learning how to use it, I really like it. I find it really fun and it makes me laugh and can entertain myself and my friends. We will sit down and take turns on my account just flying around or walking around to random places, as I am still learning about it, and just have fun with it. So this goes to show that even though it may seem weird at first, once you can grasp your natural mind around something supposedly "out of this world" it can become real and become apart of you.