Seems as if the Second Life publicity frenzy is finally dying down. As a result there’s been relatively little news surrounding Dell Computer’s entry into Second Life. Having taken a few minutes to take a tour of their virtual digs, I did, however, find something worth sharing: a production room with a bunch of almost steampunkish drafting tables hooked up to individual virtual rapid manufacturing machines. Once you sit your avatar down you get to choose computer components from a drop-down menu accessed via graphics that appear on the drafting board (this makes the choice of the board understandable, since it functions like a huge computer monitor which is what would be more realistic). When complete, the fabber rez’s a virtual PC {which is, of course, a doppleganger for the one you can order using that information and the embedded link to the Dell website}.

This sounds familiar.

Both Second Life enthusiasts and a fair number of other people have become aware of what’s called a “CopyBot”. I became aware of this pretty early on and have been watching things develop and I have to say I’ve not been disappointed: it’s a nice mess.

I’ll dispense with the technicalities behind “CopyBot” and simply call it what it is: a tool for replicating digital content inside the Second Life virtual world. What’s interesting to me is that this is, in some important ways, a virtual doppelganger of future rapid manufacturing systems. There’s not that much difference between a virtual device that can replicate and a real world rapid prototyping device that uses similar digital data and some basic raw material.

For those who never quite understood why I’ve tied some topics together, the CopyBot story and the fallout surrounding it should help clarify my thinking. In any event, there are a number of sites carrying the story and I thought I’d post some links that might be of interest.
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A few days back I caught a link somewhere to Defense Tech’s article “Tomorrow’s Insta-Weapons” (Link). That of course brought to mind my own posts on the subject here, like “The Kirkyan Weapon” (reLink). But the article – and most of the comments on it – are, in my opinion, too focused on CNC (computer numerically-controlled) machining. Not that many of the comments aren’t valid; they are. Fabbing metal components just isn’t commonplace in today’s world. But it’s just a matter of time until metal rapid-manufacturing units do make their way to the battlefield.
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I caught an entry this morning on 3pointD (Link) announcing a business plan competition taking place within Second Life. You can read the contest guideline page for yourself – Edelman/Electric Sheep Company Business Venture Competition Official Rules (Link).

Where to start?

While on the surface the business plan competition may sound good, I’d be hesitant to enter for the same reasons I tell Industrial Designers to steer clear of design competitions (and you should recall my objections to those kinds of competitions – reLink). I didn’t do more than briefly review the contest page, but this is apparently the relevant section: Continue reading →

With all the recent discussion about automakers (Scion, Nissan, Pontiac) establishing virtual dopplegangers by entering into Second Life, I thought this commercial mashing up Honda with the classic movie “Tron” was appropriate.