Worlds Coalescing

The boundary between the "real world" and the "virtual world" is become ever more blurry. However, I can't decide which world is moving more into the other. "Planet Google Wants You" in The New York Times discusses the many ways in which Planet Google is establishing its dictatorship over us earthly inhabitants. Google's more than a dozen applications include Google Calendar, Google Talk, and Google Mail. A researcher at the University of California says, "(Google) literally augments your brain. I don't have to remember quite a few things now because Google can remember them for me. Google is an additional memory chip.''

Google is an example, I think, of the internet taking reign over the daily reality of our lives, but Will Shortz' Second Life presents on opportunity for the reverse to occur and reality to jump into the internet. "The Reporter is Real, but the World He Covers Isn't" describes Adam Pasick, a Reuters reporter whose beat has gone virtual, as he is now dispatched as a virtual character inside the world of Second Life. Pasick insists that it is just like being sent to a bureau in a remote area of the (real) world.

I guess that's true. Second Life is comparable to a new territory--the frontier of reality. I wonder if virtual Adam Pasick uses Google Calendar to keep track of his schedule? Maybe if I had a virtual version of myself, and my/her schedule was dictated by an online appointment book, then I'd/it'd automatically go somewhere when it was time, without even having to be reminded...