Back on Ocotber 23rd Hamlet Au posted over on New World Notes : High Fidelity v. Interstellar: Should Virtual Reality Exploration Replace Space Travel as Philip Rosedale Hopes? The post was based largely on this passage from an excellent MIT Technology reviwew with Philip Rosedale :

“Why go into outer space when it’s more likely that by amassing computing resources we will create all the mysteries and unknowns and new species inside them?” he says. Rosedale says the freedom to explore and experiment inside a virtual world generates a “social force,” creating positive interactions between people that are impossible in everyday life–much like the Burning Man festival he attends each year. It’s a vision that betrays a touching if naïve faith in humans and technology. But it’s set Rosedale on a shared course with some of the biggest names in technology.

The comments on Hamlet’s article generated a mixed reaction. However Philip Rosedale is not alone with this sort of view. The Pendulum have published an article : Astronomy and virtual reality in same orbit for professor Tony Crider. The article states :

With improvements to the Oculus Rift, Crider would be able to let students see what it is like on Venus instead of just reading about it.

“Going to the places that we can’t normally go to is what makes this technology have a lot of potential,” Crider said. “I think that is what a virtual world should be used for. I used to think it was more for the socialization, but my view has changed a lot.”

Professor Tony Crider is of course talking about the future of virtual worlds, but he’s no stranger to the present and fairly recent past of virtual worlds and he’s very much a virtual world enthusiast.

Professor Crider is described in the article as being an associate professor of physics at Elon University since 2006. He knows a lot about Second Life as he’s a co-founder of the excellent archipelago of sims in Second Life known as the Scilands. These sims are home to some excellent science sims which are well worth a visit. However Elon University itself no longer seems to have a sim in Second Life. However Professor Crider did find value in the use of Second Life, as the article explains :

Through Second Life, Crider’s students made real-life museum exhibits virtual. Most of the exhibits were planetariums, although places such as the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro were also created. Open to all Second Life users, the student-created exhibits turned out to be a success, even attracting online users not associated with the class.

“They would build the places, and people would show up afterwards,” Crider said. “What was weird was people would stand in lines at these student-run planetariums with their avatars. But users were at these exhibits, because people online liked the experience of learning.”

The students’ reactions working with Second Life were generally positive, although some mixed reviews did seep through.

The article also explains how Professor Crider feels virtual worlds can bring something extra to the real world, something that is probably not apparent right away :

Tony Crider hopes one day the virtual environments he has worked on and played with his entire adult life will touch lives outside of the computer screen.

Specifically, Crider wants them to help his grandmother see his home for the first time.

“My grandmother is probably never going to leave her house for the rest of her life, except for hospitals or restaurants close by,” Crider said. “She will never be able to see my house physically, but maybe she will be able to see it virtually. If she could wear a device like the Oculus Rift that would allow her to see my house, I could give her a tour of the place. That would be a great future.”

The Pendulum article is well worth reading in full if you’re a fan of virtual worlds and science. However the article also inspired me to go and visit the Scilands and the first thing I noticed was that I’d actually been there before because not long ago I blogged about visiting Exploratorium Island. Virtual space being what it is and with teleport opportunities galore, I hadn’t actually opened the map to view the neighbouring islands on that visit.

However this time I did open the map and there are several sims connected to form the Scilands. Some of the sims are about space flight, as is the case with The International Space Flight Museum but it’s not all about outer space and our fascination with it. Genome Island is about microbiology.

Explorer Island is amongst the other sims, with information about NASA developments and jet propulsion. There are a lot of interesting exhibits to see out there and if this sort of thing does interest you, it’s certainly well worth a visit.

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