[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun

[Jon A. Lambert]

On  2 Jul 98, Koster, Raph wrote:
> > From:	J C Lawrence [SMTP:claw at under.engr.sgi.com]
> > 
> >   Can a player base cohesively and effectively enforce ethical lines
> > as population scales?  
> > 
> In these days of ethical relativism, it's worth considering that while
> ethics prove not to be absolute

If this is so, why are members attempting to impose absolute ethics 
(aka "safe world", "benevolent dictatorships", etc) upon a virtual 
world?     

>, there is a very strong need for LOCAL
> ethical absolutism--my goofy term for an awareness that rules differ
> elsewhere, but that locally, they must be treated as firm for the sake
> of the integrity of the local group. 

Agreed.  But what do these people have in common other than 
participation on a particular mud?  How do you form strong online
societies without anything culturally in common?  Methinks you don't, 
and you don't create societies in the real world without it either.

> This suggests that while a very
> large group may not be able to define, explicate, and enforce its ethics
> globally, subgroups within said larger group may very well be able to do
> so, provided they are able to amend the rules for local conditions.

The concept of locality in virtual worlds is problematic.  In order 
to implement locality one must provide forms of "isolation" within a 
world.  Perhaps insulation is a better word choice.  Societies do not 
arise without mechanisms to insulate themselves against "outsiders".  
Why should local governance use global governance as a template?

> This is how the real world works--in a different context Mike S called
> it cell division model, Dr Cat something else, and what we call it
> doesn't really matter--it's a matter of a degree of local autonomy that
> is subordinate in certain big ways to a larger group. The smaller group
> is small enough to organize effectively to enforce the ethical lines it
> chooses to draw under the guidance of the larger group. It's also a
> fairly basic tenet of the American governmental structure, though it
> doesn't always seem to play out thus in practice...

I liked Mike's analogy.  However is it desireable for all these 
organs to work together for a common universal body?  Is centralized 
and consistent governance (global) more desireable than decentralized 
and inconsistent governance (local)?  
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