Addendum: Kurt Vonnegut Virtual Family.

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I’d almost forgotten that I once participated in a Vonnegut-inspired social networking experiment.

 

 

I have one thing to add to the little homage to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. that I posted last night, upon learning of his death.

I remembered this morning that, gosh, some ten plus years ago, in the early days of the web, I was part of what must have been one of the very first experiments in social networking: a Kurt Vonnegut Virtual Family.

The idea came directly from Vonnegut, and it was simple. You signed up and were assigned randomly to a family. What you chose to do with that familial membership was up to you. Vonnegut knew life was a lot like that.

I wound up a member of the Daphnia family. All the families were named after arthropod species, it seems to me. We may have had a number, too: like Daphnia-36.

And we were a pretty good family, warts and all; the grandest of grandfalloons. People arose, made themselves known, found a niche and took over. Lots of strong women in the group, I recall. It basically became a matriarchy. There were some great exchanges, and also lots of squabbling, mothering, angry outbursts, sulking and apologies.

Just like a “real family.”

It lasted a few years before we all dropped off and moved on, but not before I got to meet at least one Daphnia in person. It was a profound experience. So, what did we choose to do when finally meeting face to face?

We went bowling. Vonnegut would’ve liked that, don’tcha think?

If any Daphnias happen across this post, please leave a note. I’d love to catch up.

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