To First Lifers, people who still have their organic bodies, and those who have been freshly converted to Second Life, the popularity of Vase Chassis can be extremely disconcerting. Why would someone want to live completely helpless in a mostly rigid body with no arms and legs? It seems so absurd. Most experienced Second Lifers are very understanding of why First Lifers, and those new to Second Life, hold such views about Vase Chassis and will gladly try to politely explain their reasons.

The first reason is acclimatization. A persons soul needs to become acclimatized to their robotic body and all of its components. This can take weeks or months when undergoing a full body swap. While not painful, it is tiring and very uncomfortable. Any components that have to be replaced will trigger acclimatization. Arms, legs, and a flexible torso have a large number of components that require regular replacement. A Vase Chassis, by comparison, requires very little maintenance in terms of part replacement.

Second are a persons VI servants. As one lives longer and longer in second life and manage their personal VI servants more and more, they soon develop into an extension of that persons will. It becomes increasingly irrelevant between you doing something with a robotic arm that is part of your own robotic body and doing something with a robotic arm that is controlled by one of your VI servants.

Third is Remote Presence Control, otherwise known as RPC. This technology allows a persons vase chassis to be installed into a limbed mobility frame and immediately control it as if their soul is fully acclimatized to the frame. A person can also remote into a completely separate remote body, likewise controlling it as if their soul was completely acclimatized to it.

RPC does come with limitations. The first being that a person cannot sleep while using RPC, as it will trigger acclimatization that RPC cannot prevent. The second being that the body a persons brain is installed in must remain powered and stay within the aura range of a persons soul, typically about a mile. Just because it feels like you've moved your consciousness into a new body doesn't mean it actually is. You're still in your original body. A Vase Body is easy for a single VI servant to carry and stay within range of your remote. A fully limbed body is much more difficult to move about, typically requiring a transport case and several VIs.

In short, people's aversion to Vase chassis is simply them thinking from the perspective of an organic body, where losing limbs is permanent and VIs are not effectively extensions of your will. As First Lifers become Second Lifers and as people live longer as Second Lifers, this thinking will start to fade.

Some second lifers use a vase chassis and immediately upon waking up in the morning have themselves placed into a waiting mobility frame or RPC into a remote body. They then spend the entire day in that frame or remote with no acclimatization necessary. At the end of the day they disconnect from the frame or remote and have themselves placed into bed to sleep. When any maintenance needs to be done to the mobility frame or remote, the person simply switches to using a different one. These people can spend no more than a few minutes a day awake in just their vase body.

Rain, Anton, and many others, by contrast, will go days or weeks living in just their vase bodies. They see no need to constantly use mobility frames or remotes, even when socializing or playing with pets. A frequent comment by many such people is how the minimalist and compact vase body just feels so comfortable and cozy.

At the end of the day, a persons choice of chassis in second life comes down to personal preference. Everyone having their own particular reasons for their choices. That said, polite teasing of a persons particular body choices is the norm between friends, family, and even coworkers.

This piece was drawn by the talented ThiccRobots over on Twitter. They do great work.