Between two worlds

Peter Ludlow walks to the edge of the stage in Harris 107. It’s quickly apparent that most of the students in “Philosophy of Cyberspace,” offered for the first time this quarter, aren’t paying attention. Students fill less than half the seats in the room and stare blankly at their computer screens. A girl browses Banana Republic’s fall sale. Another Google chats and flips through emails. Ludlow leans over the audience. “I stand further and further out,” he says, trying to invigorate the room. “If I make my job really, really dangerous are people going to listen to what I say?” The statement drips with the type of existentialism one expects from university-level philosophers. So Ludlow starts a video of avatars having sex. Fantastical, multicolored creatures with tails and wings writhe on huge, ornate digital beds. Masochism, sadism, whips, and bondage flash across the screen. The video culminates with what appears to be a demon fem-bot urinating on her sexual partner—a virtual golden shower. Nobody is looking for fall wardrobe staples anymore. more