The Disruptive Power of Second Life

• How is Second Life a disruptive technology?

Second Life, or virtual worlds, is a space where individuals can create his/her own world and can interact and communicate. This technology provides individuals the chance to vacate the world in which we live. In my mind, technology is meant to assist us with making our lives easier, however, it is not meant to consume us.

• What technology or innovation did it displace?

The avatar that an individual creates becomes him/her and in essence replaces the individual being. One may say that we are not a technology and we are not an innovation, but I disagree. Our mind is the innovation and yes, the avatar that has been created is only an extension of the person, but it is not us. The avatar is what we want to look like or be.   

• How many years do you think Second Life has left before another emerging technology or disruptive technology replaces it?

I believe virtual worlds have a lifespan that will be available after my life has expired. Many individuals look for an escape from reality and it is in this world that a person can make him/herself anything they wish to be.

• What are the social benefits of Second Life, and what might be the social implications of virtual worlds in your industry?

To be fair to those individuals that are users of Second Life, this form of communication does allow a person to present a version of him/her that is more comfortable. For example, take an individual that has been involved in a devastating accident which has caused a change in appearance. This individual may no longer be comfortable going out in public, however, when socializing in a virtual world s/he may be more comfortable.

Conclusion:

Overall, there are positive aspects of using virtual worlds to assist in the education process. For example, in my current Multimedia course, I have been introduced to www.xtranormal.com. This site has allowed me to create presentations using an avatar. It is exciting to be able to present material to students through animation; however, I do not believe it is a replacement for individual instruction.

To View more in Second Life, please select the following link below:

Philip Rosedale on Second Life | Video on TED.com

Rhymes of History Technology

The following blog seems like a pun, when you read the title “Re-Kindle”, but the information presented discusses initial reactions to the Kindle when it was introduced in 2007. As this blogger discussed, she couldn’t see the need for such a product, however, could not say why. I think the Kindle allows individuals that enjoy reading a way to reconnect with a passion that he/she may have lost in the past or give the individual the chance to catch up on the latest news during a quick break. Whatever the reason, the Kindle and E-Readers have allowed society to beckon on the idea that one can carry many books, magazines, and/or newspapers at one time and on one product. People do not have to have bookshelves lining the walls of the home.

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/consumer-electronics/rekindle.html

Kevin Kelly provides several interesting ideas on the future of the internet and how society will embrace the technology. Based on his remarks, if the internet does continue the ascending levels of progression of which he discusses, the ideas presented are not far from fiction to fact. The information presented below takes only one idea from the three principles Kelly provided (embodiment, restructuring, and codependency) and rekindles it to technologies of the past.

Embodiment:

As Kelly (2007) states,  all media will become one media format. When most of us think of media, we think of television, but media can be broken into many different formats. The newspaper is a form of media. So is radio. What about the picture shows of the early twentieth century?

If Kelly is correct, the web will take existing formats and present them through this one channel. No longer have will and individual had to purchase the newspaper through print. Oh wait, we do not have to do this now. The internet already provides this option. Essentially, we will be watching television through the web, but yet again, we can do this now. See the point here. The web will provide all media choices going forward.

Re-structure:

As Kelly (2007) explains, eventually we will be linking data through the internet (idea to idea versus page to page). What does this rekindle?

When an individual was researching a topic in the past, he/she could go to the library and pull various books and journals on a particular subject matter. This will no longer be a necessity. It is essentially going to be Google on a much larger scale.

Co-dependent:

The last principle, co-dependency, is related to the alphabet (Kelly, 2007). This is a very interesting point, that if a person were to think about it is actually true. What Kelly is trying to state is that the web will make us rely on it to find information. If I am correct on what he initially stated , when we learn the alphabet we become reliant on the knowledge we have gained.

Kelly, K. (2007, December). The next 5,000 days of the Web [Speech]. Speech delivered at the EG 2007 Conference, Los Angeles. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/
kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html