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February 9, 2007
Second Life: Live Outside Your Body
Dear Larry,
Someone was talking about “Second Life” at a party I
recently attended. What is it?
P. R.
Dear P. R.,
Did you ever see the movie The Matrix? Second Life is sort of
like that, only friendlier. But the sense of being in an alternate world with
its own community, society, economy, and laws is very, very real. So real, in
fact, that major corporations and even countries are getting involved in a big
way. (Sweden will soon be the first country to have an embassy in Second Life.)
Originally developed by Linden Lab in San Francisco in 1999
and activated in 2003, this “virtual world” now exists, grows, and develops, all
thanks to its roughly three million residents and some 30,000 daily visitors.
People come to Second Life to explore, build, invent, develop businesses, meet
and chat with other residents, participate in social activities, buy and sell
services and wares…well, just about anything that can happen in the real world
can happen in this virtual world.
As a visitor to Second Life, you exist in the form of an
avatar, normally but not necessarily human in appearance. In fact, one of the
first things a new visitor does in Second Life is create and customize every
aspect of his or her avatar, including body shape, face, hair, and clothing.
You might think this is a game, but it’s not. The currency
standard of Second Life is Linden Dollars, which is easily exchanged with the
real thing. Many residents are already making real money within this somewhat
unreal world. This world lives and thrives because its content is primarily
developed by visitors themselves. More knowledgeable residents can use the
powerful modeling and scripting tools to create virtual buildings and furniture
as well as vehicles and machines. As a result, Second Life offers a
three-dimensional world of discovery where you’ll find cars, racetracks, games,
office buildings (with automatic doors and elevators), music, concerts, arenas,
clubs, and most importantly, people like yourself who live and thrive in this
world. Want to party at a nightclub? Attend a music performance or an art
showing? Meet people with similar interests as yours? It’s all there.
You travel around this virtual world in many ways: you can
walk or run, fly or teleport (remember, this is a virtual world!). There’s a map
and plenty of help on hand should you ever feel lost. Membership is free, but if
you wish, you can spend some money to buy land, build, host events, or create a
business. What kind of business you ask? Everything from tour guide to game
developer, wedding planner to casino operator. You can be a writer, a
manufacturer, an artist, anything your heart desires.
To participate in Second Life, you’ll need a broadband
Internet connection and a computer with a fast nVidia or ATI branded graphics
adapter.
Give it a try at
www.secondlife.com and experience something quite unique and otherworldly.
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
