Google Virtual World

Very timely book by Vernor Vinge, Rainbow’s End. And now Google wants to use google earth and their somewhat recent acquisition of sketch-up to allow people to create layers on google earth as somewhat alternate realities.

This is somewhat different from something like Second Life, because there will be geographical information about the created structure and information that isn’t available in SL. Like you can make a new version of the Met, or 7 new versions and let people pick which one they want to go in. These are layers on the real map/world. Which is surprisingly exactly what happens in Rainbow’s End to some very neat effects. Thanks for showing us the future again Vinge.