Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

Another intriguing development on the Internet is the emergence
of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, such as
World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. In these games, people become
characters, meet and interact with others, and work both together
and against one another.
Second Life takes these games one step further. Here, players create
avatars, determining every aspect of their online selves, including
gender, race, appearance, and behavior. They then inhabit the world
of Second Life, interacting with other avatars and knowing them
only as who they want to be.
Second Life has millions of users who have created electronic
versions of everything in this world. There are churches with
virtual services, stores where players can shop for virtual items,
events and gathering places to visit, and more.
Second Life also has an economy. Players have assets and
can accumulate debts. They can create goods or exchange
services within the game, all of which can be bought and sold.
At a certain level, players even own virtual land that they can
buy and sell.
When we think of the phrase , what often comes
to mind is some sort of goggles or helmet that immerses the
wearer in three-dimensional computer-generated graphics.
But this is an atomistic picture of virtual reality, one in which
an individual person is put in a false world. What we see in
Second Life and other online role-playing games is virtual
reality in a deeper sense.
Throughout these lectures, we have seen how views about the
nature of reality proceed in a three-step fashion.
We begin by thinking of reality as a set of distinct things that
we can understand by studying them closely. We then move to
the reality of relations among things. This is the step we see
with online worlds.
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