Some researchers are convinced that vir­ tual people will one day populate artifici­ al worlds, and perhaps parallel-universes on super computers will result in autono­ mous communities of intelligent, synthe­ tic life. Isolated, ill or older people for instance would intellectually be able to receive social and intellectual recognition in the Cyberspace of VR inhabitants, theo­ rized Dr. Bernd Willim, a Berlin VR (Virtual Reality) researcher.
University and industrial research facilities all over the world are occupied with this topic, the virtual human being and their behavioral qualities such as perception and adaptability, emotions, learning and memory and, how to lend a form of intel­ ligence with these properties. Even on such hypotheses as artificial consciousness research is being conducted along these lines. In these numerous projects, specia­ lists from the areas computer and charac­ ter animation, Artificial Life and Artificial Intelligence cooperate with psychologists and philosophers. However, as long as even seemingly trivial tasks such as tea­ ching the virtual human being the correct way of walking, have not yet been pro­perly solved, is the generation of artificial consciousness even further in the distance.