Second Life Pros

Did you ever read something from Ray Kurtzweil?
I find him coherent and interesting, expecially when he talks about how the Law of Accelerating Returns will affect our life in the near future. In twenty years, we’ll experience the progress of the past fifty years, and this will translate into nanotechnological implants, quantum computers, and so on.
Virtual life will become more and more real, in the form of augmented reality and/or improved virtual worlds inside a PC screen.
(more infos in his latest book, The Singularity is Near).
What we see now, in 2008, will appear as primitive in 2028. Our fears and …read more

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This is one of the most interesting aspects of Second Life, and virtual worlds in general: the capacity to group people around the world so easily.
In this case, I’m pointing you to the virtual memorial for Benazir Bhutto, without willing to enter any political dispute here, because I don’t really know the details of this (sad, anyway) situation.
This fact has important meanings, beyond the mere virtual scope: it means that people will be more and more capable of reacting, connecting, informing, and such, expecially for “strong” situations like this one.

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CIAO to all my readers!
I hope you had a wonderful new year’s eve, and a great first january 2008!
Mine has been fantastic
Let’s go back to Second Life, metaverses, and so on!
Some smart and down-the-earth analysts agree that 2008 will be an important year for Metaverses (Metaverses are the virtual universes in which humans, through their Avatars and similar alter egos, spend time and interact with others). It will be a CONSOLIDATION year, but also the year in which teen Metaverses will definitively hit the road.
Webkinz is one of those worlds: it’s simple, it’s “teen”, it’s “cool”. It will …read more

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Sex, sex, sex, the big engine of business, together with drugs and oil.
Of course, I’m talking about the real world, but things are not so different in the world of Second Life.
We can’t have REAL drugs in Second Life (yet), we can’t be interested in virtual oil (yet), but rest assured that sex is the main and big business in Second Life, and in any emerging virtual world.

I took inspiration from this post about sex clothing and tools for “ponygirls”, a strange “niche” of the sex market.
First reaction was: aww, this sounds like strange and rotten sex material.
Ok, second reaction: …read more

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As Reuters reports, Second Life enterpreneurs (can we call them SLenterpreneurs?), in an Electric Sheep event, say they are cautiously optimistic about 2008.
I agree with JimmyJet Fossett, expecially on the last sentence in bold (bold is mine): ” [I see the SL economy going] Up, I see the prospect of more transactional capability tied to web facilitating — but only if the platform can handle [it]. If LL does not improve, could actually cause flight to other platforms!”.
Despite NO OTHER METAVERSES can really give you the power to do anything with few hours of training (yes, Metaverses are way …read more

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This is an interesting article about the “trends” of virtual worlds, and I’d like to add my opinion on each point:
1. Shedloads of virtual worlds will be launched in 2008.
That’s right, but… you perfectly know that Second Life is the most famous, and a couple more will enter the podium in 2008… the others will remain almost unnoticed by the mass.
2. Teen-focused virtual worlds are huge. Business is going toward teens more and more every day… but what happens when their parents will run out of money, or the kids will end up not being able to distinguish between their …read more

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