Virtual Slaves

It´s been a long time since my last blog entry. Too much to do, too much to think about. In IT things have developed rapidly. We are living in a most exciting and yet also a most challenging epoch. We are not talking about single virtual environments anymore, we´re talking about virtualising the planet.

PCWorld reports:

IBM Executive Calls for ‘Virtual Planet’:

¨As companies look to engage in more virtual business interactions, IBM Corp.’s head of innovation called for more integration between the various online virtual worlds where avatars meet.

Nick Donofrio, executive vice president, innovation and technology at IBM, hopes to encourage the creation of what he termed “a virtual planet” where rival virtual worlds are more interlinked.

“We want to bring all the worlds together in some way,” he said Wednesday during his keynote address at IBM’s PartnerWorld conference in St. Louis. “Wouldn’t that be a blow for freedom?” he added.

Ok, so forget the web. Let´s jump from one 3D island to the next. We talk, chat, communicate ... or, hold on .. actually why does it actually have to be ¨we¨?

Our avatars can do it!

They are currently not very smart, but by adding some artificial intelligence they may become more intelligent in the near future. Something like Hecht-Nielsen´s Butler Chancellor.

But wait! Why a tin creature in the kitchen that´s taking orders for cat food? Silly!

An avatar is a virtual robot in a virtual world that could be dealing with virtual things, like money for example, or mortgages! So why can´t I let my avatar buy shares on the stockmarket when the price and the market is right, process orders for my customers, or check my emails? It would be like having an intelligent virtual slave in a virtual world that works virtually for me while I´m dancing on the beach!

Give it another 5 years...

Nevertheless, meanwhile it is quite worthwhile listening to Robert Hecht-Nielsen ...



Which leaves us with the philosophical problem of the avatar, as being a simulation of myself in a simulated world. But what if I, my own self, is also a simulation?
Here is what the philospherThomas Metzinger has to say about that: