Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds is one of the more fascinating ideas as we took a step forward to the 21st century. Virtual worlds can be and have been used for various purposes over the years. 

One of the best features of virtual worlds is the recreation of something:  this could be something new or something one experienced in the past. The article In Room 100, It's Sid and Nancy All Over Again by Saki Knafo demonstrates this. Hotel Chelsea which used to have an authentic feel which catered to a large amount of artists. But once the hotel was acquired by a corporate management they fired the longtime manager and increased rent. These changes lead to a lot of artists leaving. But after a while Mr. Brown who always wanted to live in the legendary hotel recreated the hotel on Second Life: a virtual 3-D world. He went on to inform Ed Hamilton, a resident of the Chelsea hotel who ran the blog of the newly created virtual world. This allowed the people who used to love the hotel once again visit and enjoy the former greatness it had. 

One of the major disadvantages of virtual world is people getting disconnected from the real-life world. It offers a escape to many people but once misused it becomes a great danger to oneself. According to the CNN article Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life companies have started to implement 3-D virtual meetings. As much as fun this can be  it cannot completely provide the environment the physical company and meetings usually provide. People have things to do in the virtual world which can prevent employees from having conversations and often isolating oneself. Virtual meetings won't allow employees to the atmosphere an actual physical meeting would often have.

Virtual worlds can foster creativity by allowing people to create their own worlds and immersing in it. Someone poor could live in a mansion or someone could visit places faraway. Virtual worlds have made a lot of progress over the recent years with graphics and viewing of a lot things becoming a lot more realistic. Virtual worlds might not have much progress unless companies figure out how appeal to various senses such as feeling something or smelling something in the virtual world.

Sources:

"In Room 100, It's Sid and Nancy All Over Again,"by Saki Knafo, The New York Times, May 3, 2009, p. CY6

Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life, CNN.com: Nov 5, 2009