Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

What are different ways these virtual worlds can be used?
As Nicole Saidi explains in her article, virtual worlds can be used to treat people suffering from autism, social disorder etc. Although no scientific proof is yet established, scientists like Dr. Volkmer have expressed confidence by getting further studies done on the subject.
One very interesting concept put in by Mark Tutton at CNN.com is the use of virtual worlds by businesses on their own networks. With IBM as a beta user, if successful, this can revolutionize how global business is done. I am sure airlines will be banging their heads against a cement wall when company executives start deciding to have a virtual meetings instead of flying to London or Monaco! A combination of various tools like file or project sharing can make a virtual meeting into a very fruitful meeting.
Another important thing to note: With this technology, a virtual simulations of war (land, air & sea) can be created to train soldiers in real life combat.

What are the pros and cons?
Pros:
- While we gather knowledge and technology about the creation of virtual worlds, as I mentioned above, there can be therapeutic advantages for people with disabilities. Something that cannot be done in real life, can be accomplished in a virtual world.
- As Alice Krueger's experience suggests (see Youtube video here), there can be virtual help rooms or discussions or groups about people's problems, where people can join in and gain knowledge without any social stigma attached.
- Another advantage (and great potential) I see is the ability to create virtual meetings.
- Entertainment is a big advantage of virtual worlds. Entertainment means involvement and business.

Cons:
- Dave Itzkoff does not like the overcrowding and the smell of stale beer at the Cake Shop. But watching that band on a computer screen is no 'rosy feet' either! Life is what it is - good, bad and ugly. Comes in various shapes, sizes and smells. You cannot avoid life!
- Humans are wired to be social with other humans. I believe too much virtuality can disrupt that wiring and create small worlds in our computers rather than in our lives leading to more isolation (Kahai Surinder in 'Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life').
- I cannot begin to describe the lack of physical activity due to this involvement in computers. The problem of obesity is well known in this country. If one is able to balance their real life & virtual life, there is no problem, but once the balance shifts in favor of the virtual world it definitely becomes dangerous.

How do virtual worlds foster creativity?
It depends on what we call creativity. Some people think cooking soup out of left-over veggies is creative, while some people think manufacturing a robot that does the cooking for you is creative. Creativity in a virtual world is confined to your mind and what you can do with click and drag & drop. But there is a definite mind set required to be able to create a virtual world or anything in it. I personally do not think myself as creative so I had a hard time navigating in Second Life. But then again, I respect that lady who learned additional skills in Second Life and got a job in real life (see Youtube video here). Now that is quite creative and brilliant! I think I would like to learn how to repair a car!

What do you think the future of virtual worlds will look like?
I am in a very confused state of mind when answering this. For a person just beginning to see and understand this virtual world, it certainly seems quite mind blowing. For argument sake, let us say everyone has a virtual world. Everyone will be more busy socializing in that world than being away from their chair. Would that overwhelm their real world? Would it become like Matrix where we - or what we think we are - is just an element of a program? But again, with the rapid changes happening today in technology and social thinking, it might just become a reality. Because of the ease of being able to get into a virtual world and behaving the way we want to, I believe people will start to blur that boundary between real and virtual (Kahai Surinder) .

Old Media vs. New Media

As I mentioned in my earlier blog, old media is being replaced by new media at a brisk pace. Just take a scroll down this historical event page! The 19th and 20th century advances in technology have drastically changed the way humans live today. It does not mean that we are done inventing new stuff. It merely means we are at a turning point in a circle of change - a constant change - more rapid than ever in the past 20000 years. Imagine this - pigeons, horsemen & postman used to deliver messages for thousands of years. Then in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone and suddenly there were a 100 million lines in less than 100 years of innovation. Goodbye messengers! According to CIA World Fact Book, there are more than 2 billion lines in the world now. Hello internet!
Today's new media means yesterday's media is old. However, today's new media also means that tomorrow this will be old. Let us take an example of VHS tapes. With the popularity of VHS tapes from 70s onwards, it was widely thought the cinema industry will take a huge hit because nobody will want to go to a theater to watch movies anymore. But it has not happened that way. Instead, VHS has been replaced by DVD and Blu-ray discs and the cinema industry is still going strong. To learn from this example, VHS was a form of new media at one point of time, but it became old when DVDs came in. Same can be said for paper books being replaced by ebooks, which are gaining popularity today (Savikas Andrew). Although not as obsolete as VHS, paper books are still not out of fashion. But we are in the middle of a change - a transition between the old and the new. Take a look around in the NYC subway and you can see this change first hand. Someone reading a paperback while the next person is browsing a collection on Kindle!

Music records and album CDs are on a constant decline. Whereas sales of single songs have been rising (Hanson Joyce). The reason is mobility and the hectic pace of life. Again, look in the subway. Many people have their headphones on listening to the music or watching their favorite shows - creating their own little world - in the chaos of NYC morning rush hour. It shows that people's likings and preferences have changed over time along with social structures and how people interact with other humans.

A recent Wall Street Journal article 'Dolce & Gabbana Go Live' by Christina Brinkley focuses on media changes in fashion shows. Dolce & Gabbana are beginning to livestream their Milan fashion shows on iPhone. Contrary to traditional thinking that fashion show is considered a feast for eyes, this will change the market, not only at the venue of the fashion show, but around the world where people can see it - live.

New media is constantly being developed and our lifestyles are constantly changing because of that.