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EmotSpace Virchworlds

Emotespace
Image from Steve Bowers
EmotSpace virtual entities are abstract and alien to near-baseline human perceptions, but can be represented as six-dimensional glyphs

A virchworld design originating in the post-ComEmp Era which has enjoyed sporadic popularity. In these virchworlds, there are six spatial dimensions and each is attached to one of the six basic emotions: happiness, surprise, sadness, anger, fear and disgust.

The EmotSpace virchworld design was first developed in the Cyberian Network in the 7700s by virch-designers around Exex-9, one of that Sephirotic's few core worlds.

Within an EmotSpace virchworld, one's location in six-dimensional space is exactly associated with the degree to which each of the six emotions is being felt by the virchdweller. This has a few consequences,for instance
  • no two sophonts can ever have exactly the same emotional state in these six metrics or they would coincide,
  • all dwellers in virchworlds of this kind must have very high levels of control over their emotions,
  • they must manipulate their own mental states to a high level of accuracy to be able to move around in virtual space.
The line between artificial means of doing this and means developed through mental control is very blurred. It is not uncommon for the natives to have very little emotional range when young, not being able to vary much from the emotional state of their place of birth, with this increasing as they grow older and gain more expertise in controlling their emotions.

There is very rarely any gravity or such ideas as 'up' and 'down' in EmotSpace virchworlds, although occasionally a virchworld will naturally 'pull' people towards happiness, or another emotion in virchworlds designed by the more sadistic or eccentric.

Population centres within EmotSpace virchworlds are typically in the area of high happiness, and low on the other measures, although scattered populations can be in higher levels of surprise and occasionally fear or disgust, and sometimes strange societies form in the areas where all, or most, emotions are high. Sometimes the cities in the happy realms will require resources from other areas, and the most expert miners and expeditioneers will stir up great anger, sadness or fear in themselves, plunging themselves far into the distant reaches.

The emotional health of living in EmotSpace virchworlds, in particular as a native, has been hotly debated.

Nevertheless, the design remains fairly popular in the Cyberian Network, as well as occasionally in other societies, and seems to be appreciated by certain niche groups in the Solipsist Panvirtuality.

 
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Appears in Topics
Virtual RealityVirtual/InfotechVirtuals
 
Development Notes
Text by Kirran Lochhead Strang
Initially published on 17 May 2016.

 
 
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