Parallel Worlds

The recent explosion of interest in Linden Research, Inc.’s Second Life should be a pointer to how 5GW organizations may form and operate in relative isolation and freedom across a broad spectrum of the Earth’s citizenry.  While Kent’s Imperative ponders “The lure of the Parallel World” —

But for the moment, it is a fascinating thing to watch the giant of old iron transform itself into the newest webstate. In the virtual world, affiliations such as IBM is creating around itself will likely have more meaning than most other tribal variants, not only because the bigger guns bring more resources to play, but because that scale of commitment offers the potential for a very wide range of strange interests to accrete around a core attractor. [ed. — emphasis added.]

— perhaps we should ponder the role that virtual worlds may play in 5GW.  Even Second Life gains some of its significance by the kind of real world capital that can be made through virtual channels:  so the virtual world is not really separate from the real world, but may influence real world dynamics.

Alternatively, having sizable portions of a populace preoccupied in creating fantasy identities and fantasy lives may ultimately make conducting 5GW so much easier.  Then, subtle changes in real-world dynamics are more likely to go unnoticed; or else, the virtual world that is also evolving may make real-world changes more palatable by creating an answer to that real world, or a paradigmatic symbol for comprehending it — or a cognitive riposte.

Perhaps such play will fulfill the role that play has always filled for children:  training for a future real world and real-world dynamics?

But my general interest in virtual worlds, with respect to 5GW, is that such interactions — millions and millions a day — will enable 5GW effectors to find each other and communicate and coordinate in relative secrecy.  Because 5GW will necessarily require a global scale of operation, traditional methods of communication and coordination become so much more difficult, especially when secrecy is required, but also in the way that a careful selection of effectors and proxies on a global scale requires finding just the right mix within particular populations.  Virtual worlds may simplify the process, enabling diverse characters, with their diverse specialties and unique placements within the real world, to correlate activities.  And while I’m sure that virtual interactions might be monitored, the sheer number and variety within an expanded Second Life (or other virtual world) would make monitoring that activity a bit like looking at the computer screen on the Nebuchadnezzar.

The subject of Second Life is intriguing in itself, but I recently stumbled upon a parallel 5GW: Fifth Generation Work - Virtual Organization.  The author, David Gould, Ed.D., postulates a generational model for work:

First generation work was essentially hunting and gathering; second generation work started farming the land and raising crops and other food products; third generation work moved to cities with factories and small businesses; and fourth generation work moved to the office.  Now, it is possible to perform organizational work from any distance, any time, and anywhere.  Technology and business methods are the enabling factors making this possible.

Today, it is clear that to compete for the future, we need to work smarter as we can’t work harder and we can’t work more hours in the already hectic schedules we have. 

From that main page, one can follow links to a consideration of communities of practice and virtual teams and other related topics.  This is interesting stuff, and I foresee a correspondence between 5GWs.

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Addendum: Much of this reminds me of my prior exploration of the role of flux in our future world, which I made on Phatic Communion: Flu(n)x.