Privacy-Openness Game in Virtual Life: The Game is a Premise for a Computer Supported Virtual Life

摘要

Computers are not merely data-processing devices. They are an unlimited vast world that enables virtual life. This paper maintains that humans are paradoxical beings who want private and secret life on one hand, and make their thoughts and actions public and open on the other hand. Coining the notion of the Privacy-Openness (PO) game that humans play, this paper reveals that such paradoxical desire is a crucial momentum for computer-supported virtual life, and that the PO game is an indispensible premise for virtual life. It also discusses the relationship between the PO game and freedom which is a major source from which virtual life begins.