iTunes U--good stuff

iTunes' university lectures are giving me plenty to think about. Stanford's "Philosophy Talk" radio is inane and stupid, but "The Heart of Nonviolence," a two hour interview with the Dalai Lama, provides plenty to think about. I always picture the Dalai Lama as a white-haired man-on-the-mountain, closer to the gods than to people, but what struck me hearing him speak was his humanity. His voice was young and strong, and although English was clearly a struggle for him he injected humor into what he said which gave his words an immediacy and relevance which I did not expect. At times he grew impatient and switched to Tibetan (I assume), letting the translator take over when he had more to say than his limited vocabulary allowed. The Dalai Lama's message and actions speak for themselves on, perhaps, a higher plane of truth, but his strength is in his mortality. It seems in most religions, man seeks to climb up to God, with priests higher on the ladder than most, shrouded in a mist of ritual. This man's manner was different; it was as if he was standing at the base of the ladder, trying to coax God down.

I like what I've seen from MIT and Berkeley so far--an intro psych course and a digital art/culture course, respectively. Right now I'm listening to a lecture on "cyberpunk counterculture," which is really not so extreme as the name suggests. It does raise fascinating points on how elements of identity (particularly race) find themselves transplanted to an online environment. After all, who wants to see elves hanging out with dwarves? Talk about unnatural!

What ends up happening here is that, just as factors in the real world (race, social status, money) determine our interactions, they have mirrors in the online world (avatar race/appearance, "newness" to the specific world, speed of internet connection). It also discusses roleplaying different people and whether doing so increases our knowledge of what being that *kind* of person would be like, or if we merely continue to play our stereotypes and learn nothing.

Some fascinating cases I hadn't heard about: A man who reconsidered and renounced his Christianity considering moral dilemmas in Final Fantasy VII, an asian man who plays an asian woman pretending to be Bruce Lee (talk about identity confusion...), and the website http://www.rent-a-negro.com/, a joke website about the hypocracy of white people and the singular, almost possesive "black friend." Another fun link from cyberland: http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=481, a massively multiplayer game hires a PhD economist to look after its online economy.