Wednesday 23 November 2011

Actual Reality

Hullo each,

Sorry about the complete lack of postings. I've had the most ghastly time, all sorts of things cropping up at the last moment.

I will start with regular* posts again soon, for those of you who like that sort of thing, but I just had to put this out there:

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100607_8168.php

It's up on Rees' Facebook page which is, thankfully, visible to all without having to become part of their system (man!)

Anyway, as you will probably already know (having clicked on the link before reading the rest of this post) the US military have decided to build their own Demi-Monde and Mr Rees doesn't even appear to have received a production credit!

Since this article looks to have been posted after Rees wrote The Demi-Monde: Winter, but before it was published, we can only assume that the security services have been monitoring him for some time. Like most copies, however, it's really not as good as the original.

With characters like "Gen. William Loomey III" telling us that initiatives like "MyBase", a virtual airbase inside Second Life (honestly, read the article!), will appeal to online gamers...

"...who have been living in a digital world their entire lives and are better prepared than any other generation to operate in this environment. It is imperative that we understand their needs and expectations, and develop an enterprisewide system that fosters learning and captures their most critical asset -- knowledge."

... I'm inclined to the old saw, "you couldn't make it up".

Except Rees already has.

Mind you, even Rees' sternest critics would have to admit that his version is altogether more credible. I mean, who's going to believe there's really a person called "Gen. William Loomey III"?

*"Regular" is used here in it's British English sense of, "at intervals with the same time between instances", rather than it's American English counterpart meaning, "slightly more than you actually want, but still not available in any smaller measures". Although you may feel that both apply.