|
|
It was not so long ago that most kids in school experienced a predictable "Oh Wow!" moment when they learned about atomic structure (that's "Oh Wow!" as in, "What if our solar system is, like, you know, just an 'atom' in this, like, really big 'molecule' thing called a galaxy and…"). Today, of course, that Oh Wow! moment is more likely to be sparked by a video game or, more recently, a visit to a virtual world.
|
|
The good folks at Linden Lab have spent a lot of time designing their version of a virtual world, right down to deciding what the laws of physics should be for Second Life (some of which are similar to those that control the world we live in, and some of which are not).
Those are just rules, of course, right? Of course. But if you stop and think about it, it's also true that while you've read articles theorizing about how gravity relates to other forces, you've never read even one that pretends to explain what gravity actually "is," or why it exists. Why? Because no one has a clue - we can observe and describe its effects, but we don't know why it affects things at all. As we begin to create virtual worlds, we have the opportunity to create our own virtual physics, which our un-real creations have no choice but to obey, no matter how arbitrarily we set the rules. As these virtual worlds become more real, it can leave an uncomfortable feeling that perhaps the rules that control our world are only artificial constraints as well. story=20070624083455242">Maybe we can't explain gravity because there is no explanation to be found, now or ever - its just an arbitrarily described rule imposed by...who? Full Story |
