Working Through Synthetic Worlds explores different tasks that might benefit by being performed within a synthetic world. The term 'synthetic world' refers to a subset of virtual environments, having a large virtual landscape and a set of rules that govern the interactions among participants. Currently, their primary motivators appear to be fun and novelty. If synthetic worlds are to prosper the non-game-oriented worlds will need to facilitate business processes to a degree that exceeds their substantial costs for development and maintenance.

Contents: Foreword; Preface; An essay on the cognitive benefits of stories, C.A.P. Smith; Part 1 Forecasting: The future of the market research profession, Paul R. Messinger and Xin Ge; Synthetic worlds and financial services, Richard Brath, Mike Peters, Joseph MacInnes and William Wright; A day at a 3D datacenter, Michael Osias, Joan L. Mitchell, Donna Eng Dillenberger, David Ward and Sandra K. Johnson; Hypothesis-testing in a biological cartographic virtual world, John W. Bodnar, Russ Vane and Brian Rogers; System dynamics and synthetic worlds, Warren Tignor; Analytical world environments, Vadim Slavin, Randy Stiles and Thomas Trinko. Part 2 Forensic Analysis: Smart, collaborative workspaces in the information ecology, John Miller, Greg Nuyens, John Light and Cynthia Pickering; Synthetic worlds in national security policymaking, Ed Waltz; Synthetic worlds for intelligence analysis, Jeffrey G. Morrison, Kenneth W. Kisiel and John DeBello; Augmented reality tools for enhanced forensics simulations and crime scene analysis, Robert Rice. Part 3 Cognitive Amplifiers: Synthetic worlds for on-demand experience, Kenneth W. Kisiel; Synthetic worlds and characters, and the future of creative writing, Selmer Bringsjord and Alexander Bringsjord; Virtual rehabilitation: synthetic worlds to address disabilities, Maria T. Schultheis, Lisa K. Simone and Ana C. Merzagorra; Use of a synthetic world for negotiation and consensus building, Diana Burley. Part 4 Training: A day in the life of Airman Basic Smith, Peter Garretson and Nathan T. Denny; Mirror Man: a speculative case study of the synergetic potential of data visualization and virtual worlds, Ben Goertzel; Turing, androids and a travel holiday: a futuristic view of synthetic worlds, Robert Cox, Patricia Crowther and John Campbell; The cognitive playground: fostering critical and creative thinking with synthetic worlds, Judi McCuaig, Joe MacInnes and William Wright. Part 5 Infrastructure: A day in the life of a usability engineer, Theresa A. O'Connell, Elizabeth D. Murphy and Renate Roske-Shelton; InfoSec in synthetic worlds: historical perspectives from MOs, MUDs and MMOGs, Jeffrey M. Stanton; Index.