The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
This has been a very strange week with more evidence mounting that the cyber world is becoming more real and invading reality in novel ways each day. The first thing I found one day surfing through one of my regular sites was a press release from a company called Artificial Life. This company, based in Hong Kong has been in the news over the last year or so for their development of products featuring advanced types of artificial intelligence. An online Albert Einstein simulator that you can ask questions to, and an e-learning portal have been their headliners. This week though, they broke through everything else they have produced with the development of a virtual girlfriend. This piece of software, to be released this fall, will introduce a virtual character to your computer or your cell phone which you will have to interact with. In fact, you will have to spend your real money buying her flowers, candy, clothing, etc. In return for your real cash, she will become more interactive and friendly, introducing you to her friends, and sending you pictures of herself. On the other hand, if you do not give her enough gifts, she will refuse to speak with you, and if carried on over a long enough period of time, rumour has it that the software will shut itself off. Truly weird. Apparently they are looking to develop a virtual boyfriend as well, but they can't figure out what women would spend their money on. Another strange reality interruption that came to light this week was that the company Internet Gaming Entertainment, which trades in the currency and goods of virtual worlds, are producing a lot of their products by contracting out what they do to game players in countries such as China and Russia. In many virtual worlds, players earn the currency they need to purchase goods they want by first collecting raw materials such as lumber, rocks, and animal skins. It often takes hundreds of hours to work your way slowly up the ladder of experience ? time many people in North America and Europe are loathe to spend. So instead, they contract out their characters to companies such as IGE, who hires people to work these accounts around the clock, for the wage of around $100 per week. This way, when the North Americans come to play their characters, they will find them much improved, more powerful, and ready to take on advanced tasks. This reminds me of another posting I found on a web board a few weeks ago where an American software engineer contracted his own job out to an engineer in India. Telling his employer he was working from home, he simply found a qualified engineer in India, and paid him approximately 20 per cent of his total wage. He bragged that it was working so well that he was considering picking up several other jobs and doing the same thing. The virtual world and the real world are coming together more often in ways we could not have imagined only several years ago. Cyber girlfriends, paying someone in Russia money to play your video game for you, and contracting out your own job are three examples from only a single weeks worth of news. Keep your ear to the ground, examples surround us. ([email protected])
