Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual world technologies are becoming more and more popular, and not only from the point of view of entertainment. Many big corporations like IBM, educational institutions and even government and military agencies are using virtual world tools in everyday operations. According to Mark Tutton’s article from Cnn.com Going to the virtual office in a Second Life, “companies are increasingly seeking innovative ways of bringing employees together for conferences and meetings remotely.” First of all, using those tools of communication between people from different parts of the globe is much cheaper. Instead of organizing conferences that are very costly, the employees can have a productive “meeting” and discussions with other colleagues without having to leave the comfort of their own homes. Another benefit of virtual world technologies used in a corporate world is that some people don’t even have to come to work but instead they can do their work from home. I think that is a great solution for single parents who would like to work but can’t leave their children home without supervision. Virtual technologies also help people to be creative and use their imagination in designing cloths or interior. It also helps people to think in abstractive and more creative way. Virtual worlds like Second Life or Sometime 3D(by IBM) are developed and upgraded on the daily basis. There are new innovations and approaches to make this tool more useful in everyday life. However, as every networking tool has some disadvantages, so does virtual world. It definitively limits the interaction with people because instead of seeing your coworkers in your office you are limited to interacting with their “avatars-animated alter-egos”as well named by Mark Tutton in his article. Another dangerous side of the Second Life is that people who spend too much time in this created, perfect world may become addicted to this surreal world. Just like the people who spend hours and hours in front of computer playing games tend to forget about other important thing in their life. For example shopaholics in virtual world may spend fortunes on shoe-shopping without worrying that they may not be able to afford it. The last but not the least thing that we should be concern about is the future of the human interaction and communication. Let’s just hope that in the future, people will not turn themselves completely into virtual world and that there will still be room for the face-to-face conversation.