socialmedian: War Correspondence: The Digital Revolution's Dangerous Turn

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War Correspondence: The Digital Revolution's Dangerous Turn

Source: Stanford Center for Internet and Society

Nov 03, 2009

Summary

An article in Sunday's New York Times by Chris Nicholson brings home an important lesson about digital life under The Law of Disruption. When social contracts are formed, the medium is often the message.

The story involves the Second Life virtual environment. A couple met and married online through the site, and with virtual currency called Lindens, purchased and furnished an island retreat. After the husband died in real life, the wife could not continue to make maintenance payments on the island. Linden Labs, which runs Second Life, erased all of their shared digital possessions.

In the physical world, the relationships between citizens and their governments are embodied in social contracts, often codified in key documents such as the U.S. Constitution, Magna Carta, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. These documents, of course, are the architectural drawings of social constructs, left to courts and legislatures to implement and interpret.

In digital life, the sovereign is often the operator of a web service. For Second Life, that sov

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