Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used for a number of things. Specifically, they can be used for office meetings and hospital crisis simulations. For example, in the article "Going to the virtual office in Second Life", one is able to have meeting outside the office. In the virtual community, Second life, one is able to go to the " virtual office" to discuss marketing ideas and have meetings in 3-D. The pros are that it saves travel time and helps people convey ideas without feeling embarrassed. The cons are there is no face to face interaction. In addition, in the article "Avatar II: The Hospital", nurses are able to play a simulation of what to do in a crisis. The pro is that this actually helps the nurses tremendously when the actual crisis occurs. The cons is that sometimes patients do not follow specific criteria in the simulations. 
Virtual worlds foster creativity because people are not embarrassed or afraid to express themselves without face to face judgement. In some worlds, one can simply be anonymous. In the future, it seems that because people are able to do so many things with virtual worlds, maybe it will come to a point where people will not leave their houses.