Have you seen this Second Life thing? If you haven't yet heard of it, you will. It stands to be more pervasive than MySpace and conceivably more useful. The difference is that Second Life is literally a second life in a 3D world right there on the internet.

This goes way beyond social networking, chat rooms, and instant messaging. It is all of those things but much more. Sign up, log in and you are thrown into a world that could exist only in the imagination. Nearly everything in Second Life is created and built by its users and virtually anything can be bought or sold using Linden Dollars. What's more, these Linden Dollars can be converted into actual greenbacks. That's right - cash money. Needless to say, the entrepreneurial spirit is nothing short of corpulent and robust. There are landowners, merchants, street vendors, and who-knows-what else. You can buy a "make believe" item within Second Life for your avatar (virtual version of yourself), then also order the real live molecular version for your first, tangible life. This is where it gets weird: a fake world begins to interact and overlap with the real world. Real people have dreams as their avatars. Maybe The Matrix wasn't all that far-fetched.

I took the plunge the other day. A co-worker had been talking about it, I had read about it, and the geek in me was intrigued. Eagerly, I registered, created my new name, opened up Second Life, and PLOP! There I was, a naked, confused, 3D person looking around at a completely foreign place surrounded by several other naked fake folks wandering and wondering just what to do next.

"Clothes" I said. I needed clothes first since I wasn't comfortable walking around in any world with my stuff on display for all to see. Even though I am relatively fit, I won't even take my real shirt off in real public, and I wasn't about to do it in cyberworld either. So I began to customize my fake self. Amazing. I could customize my head size; my head shape; my cheekbones, and my brow; hair color, style, and length; shirt, pants, shoes and colors for each. Done. There I was - I looked nothing like real me, but like someone I could be. This was getting weird. As I wandered Orientation Island, I saw others all around me running around, eager to learn all that Second Life had to offer. It is very much like learning how to walk and until you gain control of yourself, you run into things and people, fall off of walls, and drown. But of course, you are immortal in your new life, so it's all in fun.

Ready to move beyond Orientation Island perhaps a bit prematurely, I teleported to a place that was absolutely serene. It was the most beautiful and elaborate completely abandoned quasi-Asian-themed beach mansion I had ever seen. I spent a good hour just wandering from room to room in this one very small fragment of Second Life and I was fascinated. The place was lavishly appointed with tasteful furniture, libraries, Zen rooms, and anything you could want in a home. The view from the rooftop was incredible: the ocean, mountains, lush trees, birds, peace. I could foresee losing sleep over this new world and one day seeking therapy.

And then I fell into a deep crevasse and couldn't get out.