Just Short of Teleportation

Excerpt

I suppose it was no coincidence that I couldn't help but recall the virtual world Second Life when I set out to draft this text. For those in need of a refresher: Second Life was developed by Linden Lab, and its introduction in 2007 was accompanied by a good deal of fanfare and hopeful anticipation on the part of prominent companies. At the time, the German newspaper Die Welt wrote: "In February, Daimler-Chrysler opened a virtual Mercedes Benz subsidiary in Second Life, where it also operates a test track for virtual test drives." The article goes on to describe plans for successively expanding brand outreach, with competitors such as BMW, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda and GM also getting involved, and VW and the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) following the development with great interest. In the end, not much came of the digital replica of the (business) world because the 2008/2009 crisis intervened. In the meantime, a lot of water has gone under the bridge - and we've seen a surge in computing power and bandwidth. …