Pi-Consulting

The internet, among the many dubious benefits it has bestowed on Mankind, has enabled us all to lead double lives. No, we’re not talking, for once, about sneaking peeks at porn, but about virtual reality sites.

If you want to know more about the real world, take a closer look at virtual worlds, and the way people inhabit them. Join an online game world like Second Life, for instance, and you’ll see what Pi means. Second Life is a 3-D world jointly created by thousands of internet users over time. Once you’re there, you can re-imagine yourself as taller, better-looking and considerably more dashing than the prosaic reality you see every morning in the mirror. Re-cast as your cyber-double or virtual avatar, you can even sprout digital wings and fly, if you’ve a mind.

All of which would suggest that players who inhabit such virtual worlds might choose to leave behind the boring everyday business of working, shopping and hanging around in bars and restaurants. How wrong that supposition would be, however! (more…)