These operating systems function within us like separate governments that co-exist but also conflict. Within each operating system is a "treasury department" that manufactures currencies: in the brain the currency is thoughts; in the heart and gut, the currency is emotions. Thoughts and emotions are the gas that powers our engines, but in our culture and society we have learned to repress our emotions and not trust our feelings. To be fair, we're also often advised to "keep our thoughts to ourselves," but few of us actually follow that advice.

Surviving these changes — learning to breathe the new virtual air — will be easy, just as new media technologies have become second nature for most of us. As Wi-Fi Clouds and Ultra Wi-Fi become commonplace… as mobile devices become an elegant extension of the home video center… as wireless communications becomes the norm… as chips are literally embedded in our bodies so we no longer require bulky phones or iPods… as our brains learn to discern and process digital signals… as our bodies become our own personal energy sources… we will quickly adapt and wonder how we lived without these advances.

Traditional identities and communities have defined civilization for centuries, but in the 21st Century a new world has opened that is radically altering how we define ourselves and how others perceive us. Second Life, Neopets, there.com, Sims, Cyworld, Kaneva, Doppelganger, MySpace, Friendster, TagWorld, Facebook, Gaia, hi5, Multiply and hundreds of new communities are being built in a completely new universe. Second Life is the first great city built in this new world, a bustling chaotic uncontrolled gathering place, like Chicago in the 19th century.

CHAPTER 2: Internet Alters How We Perceive Messages More than How We Receive Them

CHAPTER 3: Brain, Heart and Gut: Three Central Human Operating Systems

CHAPTER 4: Virtual Worlds are Real to Residents