Applications for Simulated Worlds

Consider that applications of simulated worlds and simulated games to science and social science research are on the increase. Businesses build virtual worlds for commercial purposes. Scientists utilize video games to crowd-source solutions to protein folding, to invesfigate complexity theory and artificial life, to visualize the physics of black holes, and to research economic, social, and psychological behaviors. Call of Duty, Second Life, World of Warcraft—and the software that makes them possible—are, it is claimed, "desfined to be the future chalkboard of science." As this trend continues, will we see a shift to collaborative forms of irmovative knowhow at the expense of personal inventive drive? Or will we see instead the development of new, perhaps hybrid, forms of creativity?

What we can be sure of is this: As society changes, so does childhood play; and as the toys and tools of childhood play evolve, so will the worldplay impulse. However, just as society influences childhood play, so too does childhood play influence society. Indeed, this insight has run through this study of imaginary world invention like the two^ that, as the poet Ron Padgett wrote, "run through giraffe / like 2 giraffes."