Second Life  Same as the first one    • The Guardian,   • Jump
to comments ()  First, a professional admission. If you compare
the picture bylines of journalists on this or any other
newspaper with their real selves, they bear only faint
resemblance. The real face is, alas, somewhat saggier and more
lined than its permanently younger counterpart. There is a
10-year gap between the two. Is this cheating? It is a mild
personal vanity, but not the most serious. In our mind's eye we
are for ever 21, no matter how tatty we have become in real
life. So should journalists criticise those who immerse
themselves in Second Life, where players can adopt a new
identity and move around in a computer-generated world - and
where, it was reported this week, an affair between two
fictional characters led to a divorce in the real world?  At one
level Second Life is what technology is all about - the means to
transport you from where you are now to where you want to be in
the future. If you are fat and middle-aged, you can be t