ABSTRACT
It is possible to imagine the rich and interconnected online environment of the future, where bots, avatars, digital personae and other kinds of ‘virtual identities’ are sent out on behalf of individuals and organizations to interact in sophisticated ways. We can already see how the technology will work, but what does it mean out beyond the conceptual and into a user’s interpersonal experience? How might these virtual identities grow and interact, and what implications might this have for so-called ‘meat space’? How will our identity paradigms change? What will the identities that we are trying to manage actually mean?
