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Second Life: Visual Metaverse
Computer technology and computer users are both maturing.
College students who played PONG thirty years ago have fully assimilated to the expanding role of digital reality in our everyday lives. Voicemail anyone? Anybody younger has lived with this evolutionary phenomenon since birth. Traditional pen-and-ink animated cartoons have been replaced by ultra-realistic 3D computer generated imagery.
Voicemail, cartoons... two single examples. What about the entire universe?
Maybe you've already heard about Second Life. If not you will soon. Move over, Borat, Second Life is the next big thing. Second Life is a virtual online community that can replicate nearly any activity in life, a three dimensional metaphysical universe - a metaverse. Registered participants can buy land, build structures, run businesses, earn real money, and involve themselves in whatever life enterprise interests them. There are already over one million inhabitants of the Second Life metaverse.
Academicians have discovered that Second Life can help medical students and physicians-in-training gain valuable clinical experiences in a virtual setting. A psychiatrist colleague of mine at UC Davis Medical Center, Dr. Peter Yellowlees, has pioneered the use of Second Life to demonstrate what bizarre things patients experience when they have affective disorders like schizophrenia. Click here to read a detailed article about a visit to Dr. Yellowlees' Second Life island.
Can you imagine the unlimited possibilities for eye doctors and their patients? Developers would be able to vividly simulate what happens to the vision of glaucoma patients as well as those afflicted with cataract, macular degeneration, and retinal detachment. Young surgeons can safely practice simulated surgical procedures to flatten that real world 'learning curve'.
Wait, there's more! Customized eye trauma cases can be programmed to arrive in a virtual Second Life E.R. and trainees would have the opportunity to examine the injuries and workup all of the diagnostic possibilities by ordering tests and analyzing the results.
Many corporations have already invested in a Second Life presence because they do not want to miss the opportunity to participate in this new information platform. Hopefully the entire medical community (including ophthalmology) will enthusiastically embrace the powerful ways Second Life can facilitate knowledge transfer.
Unlike Borat, technology experts predict Second Life and its competitors will be around for many years to come. Maybe it is time for you to explore a new universe.
Related Topic: Virtual Solution for Fear of Public Speaking, Virtual Sex: Threat to Real Intimacy?, Spare Change: The CDC's Second Life
Technorati Tags: metaverse, Second Life, virtual reality
College students who played PONG thirty years ago have fully assimilated to the expanding role of digital reality in our everyday lives. Voicemail anyone? Anybody younger has lived with this evolutionary phenomenon since birth. Traditional pen-and-ink animated cartoons have been replaced by ultra-realistic 3D computer generated imagery.
Voicemail, cartoons... two single examples. What about the entire universe?
Maybe you've already heard about Second Life. If not you will soon. Move over, Borat, Second Life is the next big thing. Second Life is a virtual online community that can replicate nearly any activity in life, a three dimensional metaphysical universe - a metaverse. Registered participants can buy land, build structures, run businesses, earn real money, and involve themselves in whatever life enterprise interests them. There are already over one million inhabitants of the Second Life metaverse.
Academicians have discovered that Second Life can help medical students and physicians-in-training gain valuable clinical experiences in a virtual setting. A psychiatrist colleague of mine at UC Davis Medical Center, Dr. Peter Yellowlees, has pioneered the use of Second Life to demonstrate what bizarre things patients experience when they have affective disorders like schizophrenia. Click here to read a detailed article about a visit to Dr. Yellowlees' Second Life island.
Can you imagine the unlimited possibilities for eye doctors and their patients? Developers would be able to vividly simulate what happens to the vision of glaucoma patients as well as those afflicted with cataract, macular degeneration, and retinal detachment. Young surgeons can safely practice simulated surgical procedures to flatten that real world 'learning curve'.
Wait, there's more! Customized eye trauma cases can be programmed to arrive in a virtual Second Life E.R. and trainees would have the opportunity to examine the injuries and workup all of the diagnostic possibilities by ordering tests and analyzing the results.
Many corporations have already invested in a Second Life presence because they do not want to miss the opportunity to participate in this new information platform. Hopefully the entire medical community (including ophthalmology) will enthusiastically embrace the powerful ways Second Life can facilitate knowledge transfer.
Unlike Borat, technology experts predict Second Life and its competitors will be around for many years to come. Maybe it is time for you to explore a new universe.
Related Topic: Virtual Solution for Fear of Public Speaking, Virtual Sex: Threat to Real Intimacy?, Spare Change: The CDC's Second Life
Technorati Tags: metaverse, Second Life, virtual reality
