Gartner analyst Steve Prentice predicted last May that 80 percent of Internet users would be "engaged" in virtual worlds by 2011 — meaning, most laymen took it, that eight out of 10 Internet users would actually, you know, be logging on to metaverses like Second Life and living la vida digital. Prentice's claim came in for fresh scorn when he recently warned corporations of Second Life's security hazards — not that anyone's using the virtual world to store confidential corporate data. Still, people asked, Which is it, Steve — dangerous den of hackers or mainstream amusement? Neither, it turns out.

Called to account for this on the Metaversed Second Life podcast, Prentice explained that he meant "active" users — people who spend a lot of time on the Net. Crunching current data, he estimates there are about 400 million "active" users, which would mean that by 2011 there would be 320 million people engaged in all manner of virtual worlds. That's still a disturbingly, and improbably, high amount. "This is not a game, this is not a toy, not something to just brush under the carpet," says Prentice. "This is going to be as big as the World Wide Web." Save us all..