Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

I think that virtual worlds are a really great technology. Corporations can use virtual worlds to give tours to new employees or give them somewhere they can find answers to any questions they may have. According to the readings we had about virtual worlds, they're very benificial to society. People can do things in them such as dance, that they cannot do in the real world. People can in a sense travel the world without having left their homes. In one of the readings, people with autism are presented with real world situations in a virtual world so that they can learn how to react to them. The dark side to virtual worlds may be that people start to feel as though they don't need to have human to human interactions anymore and they may become addicted to virtual worlds. I think that virtual worlds will evolve to a point where something like google earth and virtual worlds will combine to make it a realistic experience but this would also lead to a loss of privacy because people you don't know may see you walking down the street or coming out of your house which is would be awkward.