[ExI] The "real" world

[Lee Corbin]

Keith writes

> "If you've spent time on Facebook, you might be mystified by all the
> people tending to their virtual farms and virtual pets. I know I am.
> Not only does this seem a strange way to spend time, but here's the
> even weirder part: a lot of these people are spending real money to
> buy virtual products, like pretend guns and fertilizer, to gain
> advantage in these Web-based games."
> ...
> 
> "CCP Games, creator of a virtual community called EVE Online, actually
> hired an in-house economist to regulate the economy of its online
> world, which has 330,000 members...
> 
> Game economy stabilization was the background on which _Halting State_
> was written.
> 
> I wonder how long it will take for the virtual economy to exceed the
> "real" economy?  (And for that matter how you would measure it?)

And then, perhaps, à la Permutation City, those virtual
economies will manifest their own physical reality, to
the detriment and ultimate dissolution of ours.

Lee

> It the last few years what has been going on in the real world is
> stranger than what has been discussed on this list.