The World in 2030

The World in 2030 245
and sunrises, go swimming, exploring, riding my Second
Life Segway. I do a lot of random stuff.’ 464
And, only a few months later, a correspondent from The
Guardian wrote in July 2007:
It is a boom-town like no other in history. In less
than four years, Second Life, the virtual metropolis
where anyone can become a ‘cyber citizen’ simply
by logging on, has grown from nothing to a city four
times the area of Manhattan, frequented by nearly
eight million people. Its population is spiralling and
real-estate prices are going through the roof as its virtual
land is sold to users for Linden dollars, which
can now actually be exchanged for US dollars. 465
I am now certain that virtual worlds will play a major role
not just in social life, but also in business, politics and all
other spheres of human activity.
I.B.M. regularly holds meetings 466 with clients in Second
Life, meetings which the company claims are far more
productive than conventional videoconferences. What’s
more, the company has observed that after a meeting in
Second Life participant avatars often hang around talking
afterwards, just as they would do in real world meetings. XIV
By 2030 there will be a plethora of alternative worlds, all
of them multi-sensory, 3-dimensional and even holographic.
XIV
And the Roman Catholic Church has already sent Jesuit Missionaries into the parallel world of Second
Life in the hope of saving virtual souls.