Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Linden Labs have created a virtual world called Second Life which lets its users interact with each other through avatars in that virtual world through three dimensional models of themselves. When I first looked into this service it reminded me very much of the video game called The Sims, which is similar idea but Second Life has a much larger scope and used for many things other than just pure entertainment. To many it may just be a game where they get to control their look alike avatar but since Second Life lets users communicate and interact with other users and also visit real places virtually created in that world, it leads to many unique situations. According to articles from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, these situations could be anything from Michael Brown creating his own version of Hotel Chelsea or it could be hospitals trying to create simulated situations where their student doctors get to practice medicine without the risk of lose. The biggest benefit of Second Life is the simulated situations, like David Savill who created a place for everyone who gets affected by autism in real life. The article from CNN describes how Naughty Auties is a place in Second Life where everyone gets to come and interact with each who is affected by autism. The users can learn different things about autism and share personal experiences and the autistic users can even get a chance to learn how to react in certain situations. That what makes Second Life so important to others, the opportunity to make decisions that don't necessarily affect real life. One of the most useful situations was mentioned above with hospitals having their doctors, nurses and students learning the proper way to practice medicine through Second Life. It is much cheaper to simulate patients and situation than real life drills. The drills on Second Life have endless possibilities and collect information in an organized way. However, that being sad the article also mentioned some drawbacks to this service. First not everyone using their services was the type of person who long hours in front of the computer and control a avatar, to some its just naturally hard. Besides that not everyone necessarily has a computer that meets the system requirements to run the Second Life on their computer, and on top of that they must a good enough internet service. It also could lead to other problems like unrealistic situations like the hospital bed strapping the patient in an awkward way since it was purchased in a sex shop within the Second Life. With Second Life there are a lot possibilities and many errors could be eliminated but in real life things can happen unexpectedly and even though it could predict to avoid mistakes and errors, there is still a small chance of something going wrong. Second Life maybe really good at simulating situations but how about a person's feelings and emotions. What if a person is in a really different mood and mindset and runs into the same situation as they did on Second Life but at that time they were in a much different mindset and mood. So in my opinion the real life experience could always be different than an experience on a computer screen. However, it still is a good tool to use for a common problem, for example if someone has a problem and does not how to solve it, Second Life could be used to eliminate that problems by interacting with other users online. This means the possibilities could be endless with Second Life and it progresses it will grow bigger and bigger in population because who wouldn't want to make a decision in a simulated life that could tell outcomes for your real life.I think Second Life will eventually merge into the real world and everyday use, it may not necessarily be hours in front of computers but it could be as simple as dressing up your avatar for a party and observing reaction of others towards it. And it could become as simple as using on devices such as an iPod or a bathroom mirror. I think if it becomes available for portability and become easier and more appealing to use, Second Life has a good future ahead of it. Here is a clip I found from the movie The Gamer, where in the future actual real life people give up their lives to let others control them for money, as their avatars in Second Life, but before clicking I will warn that this clip contains some graphic scenes and has nudity and some sexual themes. This does not potray my views of Second Life in the future, I just thought it was interesting to share another point of view of movie makers.