by Roderick Jones

The Metaverse is a phrase that was first used in Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel Snow Crash.  In this science fiction novel written in 1992, the Metaverse can be accessed via public-access computer terminals where you then control your character known as an avatar.  This phrase and concept has now become a reality through a number of what are known as Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Games (MMPORGs).  While some of these games, such as World of Warcraft, have a clear gaming identity the purest version of a digital 3-D world to emerge so far has been Second Life created in San Francisco by Linden Lab.  Second Life allows for a high degree of flexibility within its user created content and has a currency (known as the Linden) that can be freely exchanged against the US dollar. Second Life now boasts over four million users with probably a tenth of that number being active participants.  No identification is required to open a basic account, but to own ‘virtual-land’ a paypal or credit card account is required.  A number of Real-Life companies have established commercial interests in Second Life in order to test new products or simply to increase the exposure of their brand.  Real-Life universities and non-profits have also established learning centers within Second Life to take advantage of the dispersed learning environment.

As Second Life develops a number of factors are becoming apparent about the way in which people use the world.  The first is the rapid nature of the personal connections formed within Second Life (SL) between their in-world characters (avatars).  The founder of Second Life, Philp Rosedale, has speculated that the artificial barrier between people, in the form of a computer screen, actually enhances the communication process rather than hinders it.  Therefore, people within Second Life are willing to interact with strangers in a way that they would not in Real Life.  Communication is conducted through a form of Instant Messaging but there are plans to introduce a Skype style VoIP into the world.  Therefore, Second Life is one of the more potent of the new social networking environments to have recently emerged.  These in-world connections have led to the formation of a number of groups and also successful SL companies that have acted as the interface between real-life companies and SL.  A company such as Reebok, will therefore hire an SL company such as Rivers Run Red, Millions of Us, or Electric Sheep to design and maintain its in-world presence.  These SL companies benefit from being able to have their staff dispersed across the world and thus are able to work collaboratively without being in the same location.  This decentralization means that a wide range of skills can be applied to a project from a variety of localities. 

While the makers of Second Life (Linden Labs) pursue an admirable utopian ideal these metaverse systems can potentially also be used by those seeking to pursue a radical agenda.  Many of the overwhelmingly positive features of Second Life can be adapted for negative Real Life means.  The rapid and potent way in which communication takes place would seem to be an ideal platform for recruitment into radical groups, especially given the age range of those engaged in the world, which is typically 18-34.  The teaching capabilities of the world can clearly be adapted for use by terrorists.  Streaming video can be uploaded into Second Life and a scenario can easily be constructed whereby an experienced terrorist bomb-maker could demonstrate how to assemble bombs using his avatar to answer questions as he plays the video.  Using the decentralized organization effect, already successfully used by SL companies, the bomb-maker and his pupils can be spread around the globe and using instant language translation tools (available in the world) could be speaking a variety of languages. Just as Real Life companies such as Toyota test their products in Second Life so could terrorists construct virtual representations of targets they wish to attack in order to examine the potential targets vulnerabilities and reaction to attack.  But possibly by far the most useful tool currently available to radical groups is the ability to transfer in-world money between avatars that can be translated into real currency.  The Second Life currency of Lindens (approximately $270L to $1US) can be bought using a credit card in one country and credited to one avatar (account) and can be given to a co-conspirator avatar in another country.  The person controlling this second avatar can then convert these lindens to the real-world currency wherever they are based using a local credit card or paypal equivalent.  Clearly the ability to transfer money in this fashion is a very useful function.  While Linden Labs sets a limit on the amount of currency an avatar can buy or sell (typically $5000US) this is likely to change and $5000 gets you a long way in many parts of the world.

In his excellent book the Economics of Synthetic worlds, Edward Castronova examines the issue of terrorism and describes future virtual world where flight simulators can be meshed onto other software to dry-run potential future 9/11s.  While this dramatic scenario is not unrealistic it neglects the current potential impact of these worlds, which is the turning of their clearly positive social attributes to radical ends.