Part art, part commentary on human nature, part porn, Second Life is both undeniably important and remarkably irrelevant
Second Life... I first heard about it from a Wired article about digital sex, and thought it seemed rather silly. Still, after a while I started hearing more and more about it, and I finally made a Second Life character. Months later, I had done everything, from sex and murder to civilized discussion about philosophical ideas and politics. It was at that point that I realized what Second Life was. Second Life seems to want to guise itself as some sort of second reality, a virtual world, or something along those lines, but ultimately, in the same way that IRC is multiplayer notepad, Second Life is Internet, the MMO. It is a 3d way to experience information, and instead of 2d websites, there are 3d realms that are much more immersive, allowing for a greater significance to the information presented.
However, much of Second Life is not based about information so much as role playing, and in that respect Second Life can seem very game like at times. A huge portion of the role playing world is based around alternative and furry culture, and sex. Outside the role playing aspect, there are art shows, academic features, bands, and scientific research groups, banks, and a huge number of people simply striving to make their life and occasionally their living in Second Life. Many people have homes that they've designed, others are shop owners and actually make money from their work in Second Life.
Second life is for the most part an entirely user generated world, with Linden Labs simply providing the engine and server space. Individuals create an avatar for free, then use real world money to gain in game money- which can be transferred to real world money again, the exchange rate being somewhere around 250L/1 USD. The in world money can be used to purchase space from Linden Labs to build, or used to buy any number of items, ranging from a house to avatar skins to weaponry.
The real trick, though, is how to make Second Life fun. Ultimately, there is a lot to do in the world, but in my experience many of the communities in Second Life range from being overly pretentious to frustratingly stupid, and I find the experience being akin to wandering about forums and message boards in the late 90s. Furthermore, the experience is commonly ruined by trolls and idiots, so despite the fascinating world Second Life offers, so much of the time it is impossible to have any sort of depth. However, the same could be said about the internet in general, so I suppose it's true to the source material.
I have a sort of love hate relationship with Second Life, but ultimately I see it as the future of the internet- I believe that in the future, browsers will be 3d based, and possibly located inside neural implants or headsets, and will use 3d environments. In that respect, Second Life is the wave of the future. However, the limited scope, generally pretentious attitude of those there, and numerous flaws show that such a technology is still far from becoming a widespread reality. Until then, though, I feel it offers a nice way to experience in some way the future.