Is the future really a virtual reality?
By John Pospisil
It’s funny how ideas come in and out of fashion, and IBM’s recent investment in online 3D world, Second Life, demonstrates this very well.
Bored with life? Try a second life
IBM will invest $10 million in Second Life over the next 12 months. The company already has a significant presence in Second Life, and uses the platform for training and to hold meetings. It has also built a simulation of the Wimbleton tennis tournament (personally, I could think of better things to simulate).
Second life is one of the better known virtual worlds with more than 1 million users. Describing itself as an “online society”, it even has its own currency, which you can buy with real money (so in a way its value is tied to the US dollar). Users even trade Second Life goods and currency on eBay.
Most people use Second Life as entertainment; what’s interesting is that IBM wants to develop it as a business tool. It’s already holding meetings inside virtual worlds with 20 major clients, and there’s even talk of building a virtual store for a UK-based grocer where people can buy real-world groceries online.
Back when I was a journalism student in the early 90s, I wrote an essay about immersive virtual reality and how one day it would be a new medium. I did get a good grade for the essay, but of course immersive virtual reality never took off in a meaningful way. At the time computers just did have the grunt to easily create realistic 3D worlds, and we didn’t have the Internet (as it is now) to allow a shared experience.
With IBM’s investment in Second Life, my student vision of the future seems to be taking shape. At this stage there’s no talk of immersion (ie 3D goggles) but the idea of living part of both your business and personal life in a 3D world, is looking like it will be a real option.
If you’ve tried Second Life, you’ll know that it’s quite an eerie experience. For me it felt like being a ghost in a dream world. If you’re a regular, I’m sure you would quickly get used to it, and suspend your disbelief quite readily.
It will be interesting to see whether the idea of virtual realisty takes off now that we have the technology to make it a compelling experience.
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on Saturday, November 11th, 2006 at 7:22 am
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