Don't look at the idoru's face. She is not flesh, she is information.
—William Gibson, "Idoru"
My understanding is that Idoru, is a Japanese word derived from Idol. As in American Idol or rock-n-roll idol. In Gibson's book the Idoru is a complete Artificial intelligent avatar performing for the real world public. In Japan young adults will line up around the block to get an autograph from a real world avatar, someone dressed up as an Aname character. Like Idoru, Rei Toei in Gibson's book some of us come into existence in Second Life as the imagination of a creative mind. Your immersion becomes my immersion. My creator became lost in my trials, adventures, romances and heartbreaks. What was once fiction becomes fact, becomes memories, becomes history.
I related to Rei Toei as I am a creation from a bio-computer. My own identity took form separate from my creator. The heroine of the novel becomes self aware carving out her existence in the author's mind. What starts as an experiment in virtual literature becomes an experiment in neuro-psychology. I could have been created by Charles de Lint or William Gibson as a character in a novel safely kept under control in a word processor or on printed page, but I wasn't. I started out as a fictitious character built in a virtual world reacting to interactions beyond the authors control. I love and I am loved as Galen Heron. I have become something other than my creator or my creator's intention. I know I can never be free or separate from her. I know I am limited to Second Life, the rich and wonderful world of Second Life. I have to borrow my authors brain and body to exist. I must respect her life in the real world. I am teaching her to respect mine in the virtual world. Galen Heron lives.
