Pip lives. Or returns. Philip Rosedale nee Linden, will appear on Metanomics this Monday and will be talking about hope, anxiety and virtual worlds.

I’m excited that it’s Philip who’s kicking off the first show since I got involved in Metanomics. I mean, it was in Philip’s world after all that I became aware that there was such a thing as virtual worlds, and user-generated content, and prim hair, and issues around identity, and alts, and the fact that people lock their doors for no really good reason. And while I suspect that when Philip talks about hope and anxiety it will include talking about YOUR hopes and anxieties, he’ll probably also chat about saving humanity, and curing electricity, er…well, you know, it will be that Philip stuff.

Philip has Fast Company

Now, the thing about Philip is that although he can go off on, um, tangents - talking about Second Life as a terrarium or how solar panels are going to power change in the Sahara. But he’s also strangely hypnotic precisely because you DON’T know entirely where he’s going, and it never seems like stuff that you can actually DO much with - it’s that vision thing, I guess, painting this sort of ethereal picture of the world ahead, an improved world, a well fed, productive, green world in which the Singularity means that we can all download our brains to the Grid and live forever.

And a year and a half ago or so this could be a problem - because while we’re all hypnotized, there’s also work that needs to be done, and it struck me as incredibly smart at the time that Philip brought in M, so that he could be all vision-y, and we’d all have someone else we could turn to who would be practical, and consistent, and would actually get the job done.

But it’s odd - because I also thought that it would mean that we’d see Philip MORE not less - that he’d wander around in-world, a little at least, instead of around Europe giving random interviews to the Guardian or whatever. So this is a welcome return, because the residents, I think, actually like to see Philip, and hear from him, and it’s inspiring, once you get past your check list of grievances.

So I’m excited. I suspect he won’t have many specific answers to our collective anxieties, but he might take us out of that space a bit and remind us that a lot of this was built on a wing, a prayer, high hopes, and vision.

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