Untitled.

WHO are we?

My position in the face of this question, is that our identity, as an immediate response to who, is defined ironically not by a name, but rather, by a set of behaviours that we as individuals display and manifest.

But before we tackle the question of 'who', I believe we must first answer the question of 'WHAT are we?'. What we are, are simply people, a collection of individuals.

As individuals, we are first recognized by our names, words that are intimately connected to our identity, words that somehow bring to mind the second thing, our traits. Secondly, we are then identified through our physical traits, our skin colour, our height, our face and etcetera. Thirdly, we then known by our actions, our behaviours and our personalities. These are things that a result of an investment in time, time spent growing up and experiencing life and they are only observed in time, by others around us. So there is a binding characteristic, that is it involves an investment of time, and dichotomously, the self. These are the ways that we are identified as individuals in the real world, in the physical world.

However, what we must consider is the fact that due to advances in technology and the sheer ubiquity of social media and technology brought about by the 'intelligent island initiative' - which aims that I quote as written by Alwyn Lim  "in about 15 years, virtually every home, office, school and factory will be interconnected through computers", we now have a separate reality, the virtual reality where it houses our digital self or virtual identity.

As Dr Connor had written in his paper, 'Introduction to the Special Issue on the Death, Afterlife and Immortality of Bodies and Data', there is a digital self or virtual identity that is 'a kind of metaphor for the physical body'.What this means is that the digital self is a reflection of the physical self. But this does not necessarily abide by the series of recognition process that we have for our physical self. In virtual reality, we can have whatever name we can think of, and our physical traits can be as however we want it, as similar OR as different from our physical self. Remember how upon his death or toading, Mr Bungle the cyberspace rapist had returned as Dr Jest. This is an example of how the significance of names are diminished (not entirely gone) in virtual reality as it is not necessarily permanent or as strongly bound to you as an individual. Thus, what remains is the last form of identification; that is our actions, behaviours and personalities that we have as individuals, which for MOST cases, are transferred to our digital selves and manifest as how we carry ourselves in virtual reality.

Alas, there are always exceptions with 'who', and it comes in the form of the freedom of expression that is afforded by the access to virtual reality. Some people are simply not to who they seem to be on virtual reality, merely because they can. And sometimes because they just want to fool around.

Just as how the title of my position statement 'Untitled' held little significance, only upon discovering the contents do you recognize it for its virtues.

Thank you.