Second Life and Environmentally Friendly Technologies

It seems that people are beginning to notice the potential of the metaverse for influencing environmental behavior. Linden labs has not only opened up their Second Life Source Code to the world community to improve the value of the virtual environment (see Second Life to Go Open-Source on CNN) but is encouraging individuals and companies to try out new technologies in virtual reality. Car companies are opening virtual dealerships in Second Life (see Real Cars Drive into Second Life), making it virtually impossible to kill the electric car (since all virtual cars run on electricity!) but green technology is making a splash in the metaverse. (See "Sun Microsystems to Tout Green Products in Second Life") Sun Microsystem's CEO Scott McNealy has anounced his belief that we have transitioned from the industrial age to the "participation age" . If this is so we should be able to use virtual environments to transform the psychology of behavior by giving people greater familiarity with technologies, ideas, and experiences that can be translated into real world environmental benefits. With Linden Scripting Language and Second Life going open source, it is now possible to build your own eutopia in the metaverse and try it on for size!