Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used in both educational and leisurely ways. While things like second life were seen as a gimmick, the potential of virtual worlds were proven. Especially so with worlds with other people, it allows a level of social interaction that may otherwise not be doable. People with autism such as the story of David Savill and naughty auties are able to engage and be more comfortable with social interactions with others. In terms of work or education, virtual worlds allow a safe but enhancing experience to get better. Virtual worlds are also able to create recreations of real places, a sort of virtual tourism and emulate real hangouts such as with the VLES (Virtual lower east side)

Virtual worlds are also able to foster creativity, games like minecraft allow individuals to change, build, and conceptualize things that would be much harder to achieve in the real world. However, these worlds are limited in terms of their scope and what is believable. Despite things such as vr headsets and better processing and rendering technology, it still isn't at the level of replicating finer details and nuances. In the future, virtual worlds can be more widespread, easily accessible, and can be almost indistinguishable to the real world. We're already seeing augmented reality where the two almost mesh together.

Personally, I am very much into sim racing, where realistic car models, physics and my own setup creates a realistic enough experience of racing without having to spend an absurd amount of money. I have also experienced virtual worlds within the app vr chat. While I've had interactions and talks with people over the virtual space before, it's somewhat surreal knowing peoples movements are their own and not just an animation.

Works Cited:
After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get A Reboot. April 30, 2013. http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/ or Below.

Ireport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction by Nicole Saidi, CNN, March 28, 2008. available from:http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/sl.autism.irpt/index.html#cnnSTC

"I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life" by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, January 6, 2008, available 
athttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html