Virtual-Real Environments

1. In the virtual worlds journal article, the study focuses on the different shopping experiences tried by various companies in Second Life. A lot of the articles we have read over this semester have focused on various strategies businesses have tried to make a profit from these new realities. My question is, what other experiences are being replicated in the virtual realm and what effects will this have on the experience of humanity over time?

2. Over the course of human history, humans have been over coming barriers of all sorts; geographical, intellectual, economical, etc. Regarding our desire as humans to interact with one another, it seems like all we are missing is a way to instantly transport our physical bodies to anywhere in the world. From the articles and the videos we have watched, it is clear that in substitute of teleporters people are using virtual worlds as a common ground that everyone has instant access to (depending on their connection speed). Should this meeting in a virtual forum be replicated in the “real” world, would we see similar interactions?

3. One thing made clear in the article on virtual world ethics is that when dealing in cyberspace as in real-space there will be vandals to deal with; in this case hackers. More and more, various aspects of our lives are appearing online. Therefore, are we going to need to add some of the counter aspects to the cyber world and could those possibly be the jobs of the future? For example, creating a cyber police force to “arrest” hackers?