twopointouch

Pew Internet & American Life Project has released its second Future of the Internet survey, with experts and pundits broadly agreeing that by 2020:

• A low-cost global network will be thriving and creating new opportunities in a “flattening” world.
• Humans will remain in charge of technology, even as more activity is automated and “smart agents” proliferate. However, a significant 42% of survey respondents were pessimistic about humans’ ability to control the technology in the future. This significant majority agreed that dangers and dependencies will grow beyond our ability to stay in charge of technology. This was one of the major surprises in the survey.
• Virtual reality will be compelling enough to enhance worker productivity and also spawn new addiction problems.

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As I guess we all know now, the online world Second Life has a very real-world co-existence. Hundreds of people have been able to give up their day job to start shops and services in virtual stores, trading self-made artefacts and properties for real world cash, though the medium of Linden Dollars. More than 3100 residents were earning a net profit of US$20,000pa by May 2006. PR man Steve Rubel has the scoop on one of the latest and most interesting business projects to emerge in the alter-universe:

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