You get a chance to hook yourself up to a machine where you'll continue living your life but with more possibilities and options Always young, healthy and happy. You'll eventually die of old age but you'll never have known you were inside a virtual world You don't know you're hooked up to a machine. But you can't do anything unrealistic in your dream otherwise it'll gradually turn into a nightmare and you wake up You'll also be rich in this dream. Fame comes easy. Or do you stay in reality?
If we had the technology to create a virtual reality that you can live and die in without knowing it was a virtual reality.. I'd think we'd also have the knowledge on how to block out all the information in our brains on reality and create a virtual reality that would be unrealistic in comparison to reality. If it is a matter of us just being hooked up to one and picking up in the virtual reality where we left off of reality but with better options, I doubt it. I mean, being rich and fame coming easy would be unrealistic to many people.. so if I am going to recreate something unrealistic, Ima go all out. The idea of recreating this reality virtually and only changing how your life is effected doesn't sound too appealing to me cause I was never one to give much of a shit about myself and the world would still be fucked in the virtual recreation of reality.
I'd get hooked up. But no mundane virtual life. Gonna kill, join cartels, base jump in Manhattan have some fun yknow
I've thought about this a good bit myself. It would greatly depend on how much actual control you have over your own simulated reality. As DBV mentioned, it would be a huge trust issue. You would have to have absolute and total control of your virtual reality yourself, otherwise you are letting someone else be the god of your life, a factual real god, because they would be in control of what happens to you 100%. Having said that, I feel something like this is inevitable. The rise in video game technology and tech in general suggests that many (mostly younger) people are ok giving more and more of their life to tech. As tech continues to grow, gaming will evolve into simulated experience period, like walks on the beach etc. As such, it will continue to appeal to more and more people, offering more and more scenarios. Virtual Reality will advance from the Oculus Rift, to the actual Holodeck, whether it is a room or a personal device. Considering that people have been playing Warcraft for 24 hours + already some 10 years ago, it seems plausible that with fancier tech, the immersion will continue to grow, and that some, if not many will prefer it over real life. On a geopolitical scale, it seems to make sense for population control and/or sustenance. If population continues to grow and poverty remains an issue, people may be further encouraged to pick the virtual life simply because their real one sucks. "Do you want to live in a broken down shack in the ghetto, ooooooor we put you in this nifty pod and turn you into a simulated billionaire cliff diver playboy?" Obviously, many will be against it, but considering "kids nowadays" keep their faces glued to screens and have no issues sacrificing more and more of their privacy, I can see many being perfectly ok with it.
of course the one dude with a matrix avatar responds with an essay. who woulda thought. anyway I happen to agree with Oni that this or something close to it is inevitable and I think a lot of people would be wiling to. I would deny signing myself up for a virtual reality that I wouldn't know I was in. But as a game or trial yeah I would give it a shot. I just don't see how this would be good for humanity.
Yes, the amount of people wandering around with their faces in their phones, staring at a computer monitor all day, and then vegging out after work in front of the computer or tv is astounding...look at the popularity of Second Life or MMORPGs, I'm sure you'd have many people wanting to sign up. There would be downsides to virtual reality, such as viruses, buggs, glitches, dangers to your body and mind, your eyes would probably not function well outside it. .
Real world tyvm, I'm the master of my destiny, and I'd like it to stay that way, not give myself to someone to control and hope they remain benevolent.