Exploring the pristine ruins of Second Life and other online spaces ... And what comes next?

The river of time flows around us, and technology marches on. The popularity ofMinecraft has proved that people still crave collaborative building environments. And soon, we’ll be able to explore Second Life using VR technology like the Oculus Rift—suddenly, the decision to build the world on a human scale, with doors and stairs, despite the fact that avatars can fly, makes a lot more sense.

Computers are increasingly able not only to parse vast amounts of information, but to draw connections between distinct data and make sense of it. Improved voice recognition technology has led to great strides in studies of spoken vocabulary; with the addition of facial recognition, at some point in the future, machines will be able to make more sense of what’s being saved. “Decontextualized, [the data] has no meaning,” Archive Team’s Scott said. “This is only one step in the journey. This is only one artifact. It has lasting and interesting value, beyond the participants.”

It’s up to our future selves, or those who live beyond us, to make sense of what’s being saved today: to curate the data and form the stories around it that will give it meaning.

“The more fundamental question is—is user content a right, a treasure, a heritage, a meaningful part of the human condition? And people come down on different sides,” Scott said. “But ultimately, this is not a new self-awareness. You’re just keeping it on a hard drive instead of the old family bible. Your diary is now on a server, instead of underneath your room, where your parents throw it out.”

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Still in the MUD, I stand pondering, trying to recall the names of the people I used to spend so much time with. Some of my oldest real-life friendships are with people I met through this game, and I know of at least a couple of real-life marriages that first sparked here, too. It was here that I came on September 11, 2001, to discuss what had happened and to grieve with my community. Throughout the years, I’ve moved through several other online spaces, sometimes in virtual worlds, IRC channels or forums. I spent years developing a taste for ephemerality by playing ARGs and immersive fiction games. These days, my pursuits are largely offline, focusing on games and experiences that bring people together face to face, though I spend plenty of time on Twitter.

The grove’s owner enters the room, towing an animal companion behind them; it scratches at the ground, impatient. He greets me, smiling, but I can tell he would like me to leave.

I nod politely and move on, just one more traveler passing through.

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