Through the Looking Glass into the Second Life

Had Alice that got enticed to follow the white rabbit in a vest with a pocket clock into the Wonderland come of age in our epoch she not only would make a pretty wizened old lady but also be playing with the Second Life environments to get an after-taste of her long past childhood experiences of exploring a world that strangely resembled a dream. It is not just that I am trying to get at a root of what makes Second Life so attractive and engrossing, as actually any well-made game that is sold by the dozen in the shopping malls side by side with gaming consoles, but also my totally surprised realization that not only game-like environments can have a chance in the adult world but also that even a plain computing set-up can be enough to let one enjoy what the virtual reality has to offer. It gives me a pause not only about the gaming consoles that definitely come close to being micro-supercomputers for home use, since that is the capacity that the sophisticated games demand to run smoothly, but also these possibilities to become involved intensely and intimately in the hybrid environment that consists of stable hardware set-up, powerful internet infrastructure and software layers that make the whole prestidigitatorial trick possible. Daily magic of high technology.