TROY, N.Y. - Edd Hifeng barely merits a second glance in ''Second Life.'' A steel-gray robot with lanky limbs and linebacker shoulders, he looks like a typical avatar in the popular virtual world.But Edd is different.His actions are animated not

Selmer Bringsjord, director of the Rensselaer Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Laboratory at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, sees Edd Hifeng, an avatar in the virtual world Second Life, as a forerunner to more sophisticated creations that could interact with people not behind