Friday, August 31st, 2007

Virtual Worlds, Virtual Lives

While Ira was on the air chatting about virtual worlds, his avatar made a visit to Second Life to meet listeners. More than 100 avatars turned out to pick up virtual Science Friday t-shirts and discuss the segment. Find out what life is like in a virtual world. Plus, watch Ira and his avatar come face to face. (Credits: Studio footage by Joshua Romero, Second Life footage by Annette Heist, Produced by Flora Lichtman) See More Videos

Getting bored with your life? Maybe you need a second one. You can have one -- on-line. With a few clicks of the mouse, you can create a virtual You that will chase after trolls, fly, or simply hang out on a tropical island paradise. This hour, we'll be talking about virtual worlds and why we find them so addictive. Is it healthy for us to catch a virtual movie online, when we could be seeing one with our "real" friends here in this world? We'll also talk to scientists who want to use virtual worlds to better understand this one: one researcher has even proposed unleashing a virtual epidemic in an online community near you. Plus, someone has to decide what goes into a digital realm, and what stays out: why doesn't every land have dragons? Join us as we talk to a game developer from Second Life about building virtual worlds.