Newbie Philosophical Rambling on Second Life

The quest for a place of Paradise is a strong theme running through the history of human existence from the biblical Garden of Eden to the various paradise places in the plays of Shakespeare (e.g. The Tempest) to Milton’s famous book “Paradise Lost” and contemporary films such as “The Island”. Through the centuries humans have both physically and psychologically searched for Utopia. It would appear now that we can build our respective paradises in the 3d virtual world of Second Life” (SL). Program code today is allowing us to transport our minds into these “artificial cyber worlds”. Is SL the embryo of some sort of future “Matrix”. Having just rewatched two videos on the film “The Matrix” and “Matrix Revisited” (must see the third video!) which to me is like boosting SL a step further I had the constantly nagging thought the are we not already there – albeit in a more primitive sense as we have yet to literally “plug in” our brains via a chip – biological interface – which is technology speaking perhaps not so far away? This “Brave New World” raises so many mind boggling thoughts around the ethics, morals and legalities of behaviour in these virtual worlds which are no longer “terra firma”. Naturally for those of us with a older World View, this is initially like a walk on the wild side (i.e. “Star Trek “type stuff (yes I am a dinosaur!). In any parallel world like SL with human being humans, there is “the good, the bad & the ugly” which naturally evolve whether we are on Earth, in Second Life or perhaps soon on Mars! Despite all this I am becoming addicted to SL!