Will gaming ever evolve to a point of a second world/life?

[lukyl]

Is it a possibility that gaming could ever evolve to a point where an entire simulated world is created, that is growing and capable of self sustainability without the help of outside forces (people creating new programs etc.) Including NPC's and such, that grow and form there own opinions and go about life in their own way, completely unpredictably, atleast to the player, as i would assume certain motives would have to be implanted by the developers during the creation of said NPC's so that they have purpose etc.

So you would have bad guys and good guys create armies and wars and cities, all in real time. Have competing empires fight for resources and land, again all in real time.. so you could log in midday monday and hear of a battle going on somewhere in the world between x and y country/faction, having been declared completely by the NPC and not a dev... So you then if you are connected to the one of the two waring enemies are called upon to help fight. And this war could go on for weeks or days depending on what the status is of the opposing forces etc.

Hard to explain but im sure you all understand the idea =P
So would this type of AI be possible in our lifetime?

[semaphore]

Is it a possibility that gaming could ever evolve to a point where an entire simulated world is created, that is growing and capable of self sustainability without the help of outside forces (people creating new programs etc.)

What about electricity, internet, server hardware?

So would this type of AI be possible in our lifetime?

That kind of AI might be possible, or theoretically possible, at the end of our lifetimes. Can't really see it used for gaming in the foreseeable future though. Hiring humans to create new content is gonna be substantially cheaper than a self-designing super AI for a long long time.