Be like Denmark, go virtual

By Tan Bah Bah

Denmark is now virtually untouchable.  No matter what the physical world may become, Denmark will exist in the cyberworld, accordig to BBC News.

The Scandinavian kingdom has been recreated, to scale, within the virtual world of Minecraft.

Copenhagen has faithfully reproduced it  in the hugely popular title’s building-block style by the Danish government.

Known as a “sandbox” game, the title allows players to exist in a virtual world, using building blocks to create everything from basic structures to entire worlds.

Minecraft was launched in 2011 by independent Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson.

Danish residents are urged to “freely move around in Denmark” and “find your own residential area, to build and tear down”. The Danish government said the maps were created for use as an educational tool and will allow for trips to hard to reach parts of the country. The full map download of Denmark will be available until 23 October.

Think of the potential in recreating Singapore in cyberworld. Unlike merely buying property in Second Life, a existing 3D virtual community created by members, mapping every part of a real country, having a complete virtual version of Singapore is helpful for town development, social work, transport planning, hospital expansion and so on.

No reason why we cannot, as Hamlet would say, be Denmark.