Way back in high school, my friend James had discovered the internet
at the young and impressionable age of 16. James was by no means an
athlete or sex symbol. He was what you could call a "brooding
philosopher" of sorts, extroverted to an extent, but not exactly
social. To him, even the most seemingly simple ideas had deep considerations.
Needless to say, when he came across the internet, and specifically
across the program Second Life, he was drawn into a world that was
far more exciting and enriching than what most would dismiss as the
"real world." To him, the ability to create a new you in
the digital realm, he made an art form of it.
Many years later, he has
explored dozens of identities apart from his own. When he logs on,
there is a different person on the otehr side of the screen, just
as real and organic as the hands that are on the keyboard. His "selves"
grow and develop like a controlled expereiment, with James peering
through the glass of the internet in a white labcoat.
The man in the video is not
James. It's a friend of mine who agreed to stand in for him and speak
based on a series of letters and conversations I had with him. This
adds another layer to the experience, as James would be represented
by his avatars online, in this video his is also represented by another
figure.
And Diego would like everyone
to know he is not, in fact, a furry.