Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual world are used in many ways from just chilling online to learning. One of the main uses for the virtual world is gaming. In this setting players use their avatars to get through a role playing or story line episode.  On the other hand some people like David Savill, who suffers from autism which is a “brain disorders that can cause difficulties in social interaction, communication and behavior “(Nicole Saidi CNN.com/autism), is able to use his Second Life avatar Dave Sparrow, to socializes and acquire information on autism from all over the world. Additional second life allows and encourages people that are unable to do regular every day activity like dancing, running, swimming, playing and so on, to do in their virtual form. Another way is education, education on the virtual level, consist of 3D recreations of museum and gallery spaces, computer programming tutorials, virtual libraries. Everyday more and more uses are created, so the list is limitless.

If we look at it everything as a good and bad side and this includes virtual worlds. Tells start with the pros people get to interact with each other, people gets to do what they could never do in real life. Furthermore, people are given the ability to be creative and bring new things to the table.  But on the other hand, some people might take it to another level and forget about the real world, they would become addictive to the game or second life and totally forget about their real life. These people could be overweight and glued to the computer. This can become unhealthy and dangerous to their body.

                Virtual worlds foster creativity by giving innovators the ability to come up with solutions for our everyday problems.  According to Mark Tutton from CNN article, Companies like IBM are going to the virtual world to save money on travel expense in the recession. Recently, IBM had a conference for 72 hours with about 350 people to come up with new technologies. This is very smart because the cost of a conference of 350 people could cost a fortune. Think about it the flights, rooms, the area for the conference and the food. Hard times are helping companies to see innovative ways to keep them on top.

When it comes to the virtual world the possibilities are endless. Moreover as we progress to the future, and technology become more advance, we will start to unlock the true capability of the virtual world. At this point of time we have to look at the computer and type and move around with the mouse, in the future we would have to ability to feel, smell and taste everything within the virtual world. We will be able to talk, think and move around the second life world with our minds.