Second Life & Reddit Are Not The Hives Of Scum And Villainy Droids You’re Looking For

Whereas some people were disappointed about NASA’s Mars Announcement yesterday, I was bloody well excited :

New findings from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.

“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water — albeit briny — is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”

I mean ok, it’s not like Ripley’s Alien has been found but it’s exciting enough. Indeed I was so excited that I went looking for Martian artifacts in Second Life and popped along to Reddit to read an AMA (Ask Me Anything) between Reddit Users and NASA scientists.

Now if you’ve been paying attention to the news over the last few years you may be forgiven for thinking that Second Life and Reddit are wretched hives of scum and villainy where no decent person would set foot. However if you scratch beneath the surface you find two platforms with some bloody great content.

My first space port of call was Hanna’s Martian Colony, which is a user created area with a very good science fiction vibe. I then went to the SL Planetarium which is next to the international space flight museum and also has a section about exploration of Mars from previous missions.

However, alas, I realised that despite Second Life having shows such as Virtually Speaking Science and indeed, just Virtual Speaking (which is more about politics), the NASA scientists would not be coming to Second Life to talk. I’m not sure anywhere in Second Life would be large enough to house them. Therefore I had to go to Reddit, a place I’m not really that familiar with, other than reading that it’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

The NASA participants at Reddit were :

• Rich Zurek, Chief Scientist, NASA Mars Program Office; Project Scientist, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
• Leslie K. Tamppari, Deputy Project Scientist, MRO.
• Stephanie L. Smith, NASA-JPL social media team.
• Sasha E. Samonchina, NASA-JPL social media team.

They answered a number of questions relating to the NASA announcement. Indeed I learnt that :

Presently, NASA is looking into the possibility of sending humans to the vicinity of Mars in the early 2030s. In this scenario, the earliest humans to the surface would be in the late 2030s. -Rich Zurek

We know that from a virtual world perspective some people think that going to Mars is a lot of effort and we’d be better off visiting via a virtual world representation. I think there’s more than enough room for both concepts to work.

There was a question that many people are interested in, could there be life on Mars? How about those microbes?

It’s possible. We know of forms of life that hibernate during dry seasons on Earth. The water that we’re seeing within the RSL (the seasonal dark streaks that we’re seeing on slopes on Mars) is salty. Salty water could be harmful to life.

We don’t know what Earth life could do to any potential life on other worlds. That’s why we try to clean our spacecraft very carefully. — Leslie K. Tamppari

There was more, a lot more, but it was mostly good conversation from people who were very interested in the announcement. Obviously there are always some who can’t help themselves and must act the smart arse, but it was generally good natured.

Watching this play out on Reddit I couldn’t help but feel that Reddit, like Second Life, gets unfairly maligned for some of the darker aspects of its content. Yes in an age where edgelords and shitlords make Sith Lords look respectable, there is scope to report on some of the bad content, but where’s the reporting on the good content? Why do the media not feel it’s worth reporting?

There’s a lot of good content on Reddit, there’s a lot of good content in Second Life, the hives of scum and villainy droids do not have to be your subject matter, they can be saved for a rainy day, there’s a lot more to these platforms than meets the eye.

SLURL To Hanna’s Martian Colony : maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soul%20Star/128/128/23

SLURL To Planetarium : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/21/51/22

SLURL To Virtually Speaking : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Locus%20Amoenus/44/99/24