One of the best thing about having grown up reading books like Gibson’s “Neuromancer” and Stephenson’s “Snow Crash” is that I am not getting to see almost all the fantastical technological fantasies in those books become a reality. It’s well known that Second Life was largely based on the work in “Snow Crash” and the whole world of hackers that permeates Gibson’s early books is thriving.
One idea Gibson wrote a lot about in his last book, “Spook Country,” is augmented reality. In his book, this meant wearing a special helmet and visor that overlayed the real world with images and information beamed in from the net.
Below, however, is a real-world example of Layar’s Augmented Reality software in action. While it’s just a start, the applications are overwhelmingly cool.
It’s already well known (among those who care to know at all) that much of Second Life is devoted to various sexual quirks and fetishes. Sure there is some other cool stuff happening there once-in-a-while but its the virtual sex that drives the core user base.
Recently, there was an attempt to open a virtual world for Muslims. This was quickly shut down after various haters invaded the world and basically harassed the crap out of the users.
Now, Sony is having to eliminate voice-chat from their new VR world “Home” because it was being used to harass female avatars.
It might be time to face facts – virtual worlds that have no directed gameplay element will quickly devolve into a lowest-common-denominator society. Maybe total freedom is less of a gift than it appears.
The WSJ has a pretty neat look at the small (but growing) number of kids who have found ways to earn money in various MMO’s like Second Life and World of Warcraft:
“As the pool of traditional summer jobs shrinks, tech-savvy young gamers are honing their computer skills to capitalize on growing demand for virtual goods and services. Some work as fashion designers, architects and real-estate developers in Second Life, a fantasy world populated by digital representations of real people. These so-called avatars shop in malls, buy property, hang out with friends or sit “home” watching TV, all manipulated by their real-life counterparts with computer key strokes and a mouse.”
Although many in the adult world have seen little economic benefit to in-game businesses you might be surprised to learn that, “On a typical day, Second Life players spend close to $1.5 million on virtual clothes, jewelry, homes, cars and real estate.” That’s real (ok US$) money.
It’ll be interesting to see how fast the most successful kids in this realm are bought out or co-opted by the major corporations that have failed to make a dent in the same marketplace.
One of the main reasons I find myself emersed in new media today is due to my love of cyberpunk as a kid. The idea of a full virtual reality that we could plug into was just completely enthralling to me at the time.
However, though I was a very early internet adopter and user I never got excited by things like SecondLife or There.com largely because they just seemed like toy – there is nothing that one needs to do in SL and most of the possible activities are pretty much things I do in my real life. That’s all fine as a temporary escape but it doesn’t emerse one in a useful alternative world.
It is still quicker and easier to navigate the 2D web via links and scrollbars than it is to wander a Virtual town looking for the “library.”
As a social alternative there is some real potential in these virtual worlds but the idea i had as a kid that we would be living part of our lives inside the machine seems silly to me now.
However, the notion of a “filter” that puts the web over the real world, like explored in Gibson’s last book, Spook Country, is potentially REALLY exciting.
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June 17, 2009 10:56 am | 
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