Gibber-gabber
What is Second Life? And why should you care?
beingzoe 2008-05-26 07:25:39 UTC

NOTE: My original inspiration for this post was a presentation at SlideShare which I found very informative. But after posting the owner of the presentation has since made the slide show private. I have embedded a video from YouTube entitled Introduction to Second Life which conveys the general concept of Second Life from a more “professional” point of view similar to the slide show I intended to share with you here .

You’ve probably heard about a thing called Second Life but I’ll bet you don’t know much about it. When I first heard of it I thought it was a game like World of Warcraft. But as I continued hearing about it I realized that it wasn’t a game at all, but literally a virtual second life people were living in a virtual parallel universe. I’m all for escaping from reality but my instant reaction was that this had gone too far.

I’ve heard stories of people meeting and getting married having only interacted through the Second Life virtual world. Then I began hearing stories that people were running “real” businesses and exchanging goods, services, and commodities through the Second Life world. And with scant knowledge and only hear-say stories I continued to judge this phenomena as absurd. (Not that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it, but this summarizes the extent of my thoughts on the subject).

But then while watching a BBC production The Intelligent Revolution with noted theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku (see some" astounding science and not so fiction science fiction at YouTube with Michio Kaku":http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Michio+Kaku&search_type= ) my thoughts on virtual lives and virtual worlds were reshaped dramatically.

In The Intelligent Revolution Kaku suggests, among many other things) that Second Life represents a crude and preliminary bridge to a future where, like the Matrix we are “jacked in” to the virtual world and the real world at the same time. He sees this path taking the course of ever improving computer interfaces and more realistic virtual worlds, with the advent of biogenetic and cybernetic human enhancement technology added into the mix, providing a seamless experience between the analog and digital within our minds.

While it sounds like a lot of science fiction, I’m not so sure anymore. Advancements in nanotechnology and artificial intelligence alone are thrusting us towards strange new worlds. So while I may not be prepared or satisfied with the interface to this new virtual parallel universe and it’s crude graphical representations of real life, will my attitudes change when there is not screen or interface, and that virtual realm is as photorealistic as if I’d seen it with my own eyes?

I’m not sure, but it gives room for pause.

But more imporantly there are those that suggest, more than an alternate life, Second Life is another form of social networking the same as using CoTradeCo.com, MySpace, or Facebook and that we should be using this technology to help our “first lives” now.

Apart from the entertainment value of Second Life, there are artists, engineers, physicists, and businesses implementing and experimenting with real world concepts without the overhead and risks (or even possibility) in real life. This goes far beyond just another place to stick your brand in front of someone. The video embedded here discusses one Hotel chain constructing a virtual equivalent of their real world facilities to get more extensive feedback on their business. Physicists are modeling theoretical concepts. Artists and engineers are working out real world designs and challenges.

And the bridge between real and virtual world is already being blurred as people watch television or films, browse “real world” websites or products, and experiment with marketing campaigns for brands inside and out of Second Life. All this in a world where people can fly!

The video embedded in this post and the presentation from SlideShare linked to in the opening note give a nice overview of the Second Life world and what some of those possibilities might be today.

What does the future hold? While we might be able to make loose predictions a few years out, I don’t think we can imagine the possibilities in our wildest dreams.

While researching a replacement presentation for the introduction to Second Life, I found this great Second Life for Businesses – Introduction presentation that also had it’s embedding turned off. This presentation may be even more effective in presenting the potential of business in Second Life.

I am curious to hear what you think, especially if you were as initially put off from the concept of Second Life.

You might also be interested in:

• What is Second Life? And why should you care? Part II
• Digital Life community