More possibilities.
Now rendered a bit dated.
Ever wondered if life actually imitates fiction? Do storybook fantasies ever turn true? Consider these lines then -?Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation.? Those are the words of William Gibson, author of the book Neuromancer, written long before the Internet or any major network was present. This book is the very same book from which the word cyberspace comes from. Science fiction is turning into reality at an amazing pace. Here, it is impossible to relate to events of today in terms of yesterday?s rules. So, as we journey forth on a visit of the now inevitable digital world, welcome the images with healthy skepticism and hearty disbelief.
Hey, you must have heard of the Stone, Bronze and Industrial ages. But, then where are we now? Welcome to the Information Age - an era when the power of information rules supreme. Already, the effects of these changes are being felt as a sociological revolution. Huh? What did that mean ? translated it implies that the generation that will be 25 years old, when we reach the next millenium, would have been comfortable with an entirely new mode of virtual existence. Researchers are calling everyone born after 1975 as Netizens, in order to truly indicate the great changes that have been occurring. For all those born before 1975, don?t despair, you still have a chance if you read this article(issue?) thoroughly! It is apparently for the first time in the history of man that an entire generation will be the pioneers into a new frontier. This generation will be comfortable with digital living and a virtual life. It is expected that in few generations, evolution would leave man physically adapted to this new digital mode of life. Too much mouse usage and the click-to-surf phenomenon could directly cause the rest of the fingers to become vestigial. Imagine a world, complete with people with no hands, only appendages dedicated to clicking a mouse. Scary? Now, you know not to use that pesky mouse too much. However, how mankind will adapt and evolve because of such changes is still a question open for discussion.
It was one of the digital visionaries, Marshall MacLuhan who first spoke of the ?global village?. The Usenet and such virtual communities is perfect evidence of this phrase. In this mad crazy community of individuals, groups of people linked only by common factors exist. They may physically be anywhere in the world, but they live together virtually in their own small communities. You can now connect with the people who enjoy the very same food, music and drink no matter where they actually exist. If you then want to argue whether to drink your drink first and then eat or the other way around, is entirely up to you?
Do not make the mistake of assuming that something like this is not going to happen to you. Every day when you scan the paper you probably see a new site with the URL of your friendly neighborhood. The day is not far off when each house will possess a URL. The first time a baby was on the net, (www.baby.com) made history. Now, it?s not unusual to have major events in your life right where everyone can see them. In a virtual world, physical events in your life must be reflected in the virtual world.
The Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is another perfect example of such communities. Each channel has participants from anywhere in the world, linked by the fact that there is a common goal to their ideas. Virtual living is characterized by an old line that goes ?On the ?Net, no one knows whether you are a dog or not.? Each IRC involves people pretending to be someone else, people hiding their true nature. We all know what you did in the last IRC chat, don?t worry we just won?t tell. Nevertheless, what is more important is that you can be who you want to be. In the virtual world, the physical dimensions that determine your structure do not limit you. Like a login name, characters, people, avatars can be changed at the drop of a hat.
Most of India chats on www.talkcity.com. It feels both secure and safe to log onto your own city chat and discover that you are actually chatting with you next door neighbor. It?s scary when you realize that you haven?t spoken to him in person for months and only have been meeting him virtually! The beautiful part of the chats is that essential human nature does not change. On an IRC too, you can see people behaving kind, acting crazy, getting angry or just walking away. The expressions are the same; the modes of delivery may vary.
The virtual world is a lot of fun too. The kinds of games that most people play today are more or less limited to single machines. Multiplayer Doom was supposed to be one of the major reasons for its popularity. The concept of chasing some other human being is part of out instinctive responses. Imagine then when the whole world is digital. Wow! All the game players out there, join the brigade to welcome the virtual world. Let?s also remember that in this big world, there will be someone who can chase you around with a Shotgun and kick you really hard, so get down to that practice session right away.
Is there anything that we can think of that is not undergoing a transition into virtuality? From simple things like shopping for your daily requirements to going to a movie, everything is going virtual. All you need to do is to reach the friendly shopping mall, decide what to buy, order and ask for delivery. As always, everything that you did was virtual. Don?t live in Delhi and have always wanted to visit Connaught Place? Just log on to the site and walk through it virtually at www.connaughtplace.com. Heard of Brigade Road in Bangalore? If you want to feel the place without being there - just key in www.brigaderoad.com and you get a feel of the most happening place in the city.
There are also great advantages of virtual living. Remember the queues that you waited through when the previous blockbuster movie was released. Not anymore. Just surf and get your ticket online. It?s as simple as that. What?s more is that this facility is not just in theory but is available commonly. This concept works with any other such service. Wanted to explore a new consumer product? Check it up and see and use it virtually before you make up your mind. You could test ride that new car and see how that brand new television felt like, all sitting right at home.
A large number of people believe that this commercial interest will be one of the defining and trend setting guides of evolution of virtual life. There is enormous economic potential in being able to transact in this method. The interest in such forms of trade can be deduced from the fact that there actually have been proposals in the United States Legislature on a tax on virtual cash. No government too can be immune to an idea to earn extra money!
A fine example of commercialization and virtual communities is www.amazon.com. This site has transformed itself from being a simple electronic bookstore into a community of readers, who provide reviews, read, recommend and select books. The virtual world was to spell doom for the written word. Let us not forget that you are right now reading the written word about the virtual world! The written word is obviously back in action and is not going to go without a fight. The development of places like Amazon.com is just a natural expression of the co-existence of business and virtual life.
The virtual world is not without it?s crusaders. The fight against controls on cryptography and secure encryption has seen amazing dharnas. The power of the collective masses of people, untapped and unperceived have been let loose. If you are asked for the most democratic and free structure that you know of ? respond with the Internet. It?s the best answer. In here, you have as much power as anyone else has. You have as much right to speak as anyone else has. And, remember you can be as wrong as anyone else. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) is one such organization that vows to protect the present state of the uncontrolled and free Internet. Its famous and popular Blue ribbon campaign for free speech is one such example. The virtual world will see many more of such organizations.
The virtual world is also at war with conventional ideas. The MP3 format (www.mp3.com) let loose a whole new mode and medium of musical expression. In addition, it brought a hoard of music companies and unfortunately their lawyers as well. Unlicensed and illegally copying of copyrighted songs are common. Any search with the word MP3 will throw up hundreds of sites, from which you can download these illegal songs. The official battles on this front are still raging in the courts. What we need to learn from this is that a new technology or a concept can force a complete change in existing strategies and institutions.
Pornography and sex on the Internet are already famous and discredited for what they are. The freedom and availability of unrestricted access to such sites is indeed a major problem for the rapid acceptance of the digital world. In a completely virtual world, the position of these elements may well determine the mindset of the virtual generation.
Medicine, Religion and Education have been three major areas that have adapted to this virtual world concept rather quickly enough. The profusion of places where you could get a second opinion on some obscure disease that you might want to know about is very large. The amount of resources and information that can be accessed from the Internet cannot be accessed elsewhere. You could for example search for your own obscure allergy at www.4allergies.com and find remedies, cures or hints to what to do. Looking up your particular medical problem will directly link you to the experts on that problem in the world. If that does not cure you, hypochondria is your problem is all I can say. Religious sites on the net are few in number compared to the business sites, but by their mere presence indicate how important this medium is to become in the future. In such a religion sensitive country such as ours, the virtual world is one where there is no strife. But, beware, there are murky and weird sites as well. In the present, there are only a few places where you can `virtually? get rid of your sins. Perhaps in the future, such places may abound. A word of caution is not out of place here.
Virtually educating people (sorry for that pun!) was only a topic of science fiction. Let?s wake up to reality. With virtual universities already set up, distance education has undergone a complete shift. The entire concept of distance education has to be reorganized. Here in a virtual world, every location is just the same as every other location. The Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences(B.I.T.S.), Pilani (www.bits-pilani.ac.in) is working hard at making every course of their entire educational system online. This would imply that you sat in the safety of your home and worked on any degree from them. Worldwide many universities and colleges already have all their data online. The site most nerds love turns out to be www.mit.edu simply for that amazing MIT experience, even if it is virtual.
The virtual world is not without it?s dark sides and faults. The most important need is for some sort of global and comprehensive means of identification. Closely coupled with this is the need to ensure security and safety on such a virtual world. This does not mean Cyber-Cops chasing you down streets with a baton, but involve some aspects of policing and patrolling parts of this global, virtual world. Finally but most importantly, this virtual world must be fast and easy to access. The waiting that each of us goes through when accessing data is too much. If a virtual world is to be more acceptable generally, then the information superhighways need a fresh coating of tar to help the speeds rocket. And, getting that new 56kbps modem you wanted would also help a little, it is believed.
William Gibson?s book ends on a scary note. The author has imagined a situation where Cyberspace itself has awareness, sentience and it thinks and makes decisions. That may not happen in many of our lives, and we all hope and pray that it does not. However, it could. Is a virtual world so important to us then, that submerging ourselves into it can lead us to lose ourselves along the way? Just think about that when you punch in your next URL?