Superman/The Fly Moment in Second Life
After weeks of work on a college campus in Second Life, the time had arrived for me to move it from a skyplatform to the newly minted island that was waiting for it below. I selected the entire building, which was made up of over a thousand individual pieces. I went to copy it. Something went suddenly, horribly wrong.
Just like in The Fly, the transporter glitched out and there, to my horror, was the original campus with its DNA mingled with broken fragments of a hideous doppelganger campus. They were fused beyond all repair. I couldn't even get inside the virtual car wreck of a building. My heart just about stopped cold. Weeks and weeks of work, gone.
There is no undo key in Second Life. Fortunately, there is a time machine. Individual islands can have the clock reset to before tragedy unfolded. I sent an email to the landowner, Carol. She emailed Second Life. Time marched backwards, just like when Superman flew counterclockwise around the world to save Lois Lane. The building is fine again.
My heart will go on. Jesus, I never want to have that happen again.
