The future: interactive, virtual

Links
2016: A Peek at Our Internet Future

Net nightclubs, virtual venues generate real dollars

Here are a couple links from recent days that have caught my eye. They look at the immediate future as well as the potential of the coming future, in terms of what life will be like in a world where we are always connected.

I especially find interesting the idea of fully interactive virtual worlds. There are many possible applications, from the educational (field trips to museums or historic sites), to the commercial (virtual shopping malls), to the seedy (virtual red-light districts). As computing power and bandwidth grow, complex 3D-modeled environments should become commonplace, and an avatar version of ourselves will be able to go wherever we like, and interact with whomever we choose. These will be the logical extension of today's social networking sites. It'll be the Sims, but it will be real people rather than computer characters moving through the world on our screen.