Universities and government agencies, even a few private corporations, are going all “mad scientist” on us in the realm of virtual worlds. But why are they experimenting there and why are so many drawn to virtual worlds like a dying man to a priest? “As a new part of the real world, virtual worlds are like the utopian communes and artistic movements of the 1960s: a flowering of creativity and exploration of alternate ways of life that may eventually reshape all other dimensions of reality,” said William Sims Bainbridge, National Science Foundation program director.
