Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds like Second Life give us a virtual 3 Dimensional space to create basically anything we want with specifics and results under our control. For instance, at Second Life we could create and office room with our choice of furniture, color of walls, things placed on the desk and pretty much any detail we want. Virtual worlds allow us to be creative and imaginative. We can actually put our imaginations in effect at these three dimensional online spaces. They are also used by multiple users, so everyone can create a “fake” world they want to live in. It allows users to think big, take risks and be flexible. Besides using these for entertainment, they can also be used to foster learning. The article, IBM's Virtual World for its Employees: IBM Learning Programs Get a 'Second Life' highlights how IBM has used second life to provide corporate training to its new employees.
One of the major advantages of Second life and other virtual worlds is that they are easily accessible and free. When used in learning environments to teach controversial topics such as ethics and sexual harassment, users can maintain their anonymity and learn effectively at the same time. They can also be used for marketing purposes or to find whether a particular product would be liked amongst users or not. However, virtual worlds have disadvantages as well. There are lots of distractions. The article, http://www.forbes.com/home/free_forbes/2007/0702/048.html draws attention towards the dark side of Second life. How people might use it merely for fun, with such access it would be hard to maintain a learning environment unless necessary steps are taken to block access. Freedom of speech could be misused in such a space. I strongly believe there will be major changes made to virtual worlds in the future, especially to address some of the above issues. There should be laws passed to deal with any criminal activities arising from this online space. In addition, there might be a whole new virtual world website like Second life just to be use for learning/training purposes.