Talking in purely speculative terms, with regards to relatively distant technology (20+ years), what do you think technology will be like then? What kind of applications do you imagine there been?
Personally, I like the idea of a matrix world myself, where at somepoint, we're able to so accurately recreate a virtual world such that our sense are unable to distinguish the difference, that we can essentially live in it.
Would that be a good thing? If you could transist between the real world and the matrix freely, and the matrix wasn't a sinister world created by rampant robots, but instead a virtual paradise under the control of humanity... wouldn't that be an entirely radical thing for humanity? Changing the way we think about luxuries, resources, etc...
Hell, we could easily operate and experience things impossible in reality in this world, such as been able to teleport around, or 'fly' without assistance of machines, granting us matrix like super powers and then some.
all these things, if they could be simulated in a virtual world, recreated endlessly without expense, except for powering and maintenance of the machines that allow this stuff...
then what meaning would there be left to human struggle?
Well... I guess at that point, the concept of personal wealth becomes something rather less meaningful... but at the beginning you would still face class and material problems, trying to get everyone hooked onto this matrix network.
But if it matured to the point where there was enough capacity to hook everyone up to this matrix, and all our wants were easily satisfied... then what purpose do we have left? I guess you can't live only in the matrix; you'd need people or robots to maintain the machinery and network... and indeed the people themselves; fed intravenously? We'd still need to dispose of waste... we are still humans afterall.
mmmm....
Personally, I like the idea of a matrix world myself, where at somepoint, we're able to so accurately recreate a virtual world such that our sense are unable to distinguish the difference, that we can essentially live in it.
Would that be a good thing? If you could transist between the real world and the matrix freely, and the matrix wasn't a sinister world created by rampant robots, but instead a virtual paradise under the control of humanity... wouldn't that be an entirely radical thing for humanity? Changing the way we think about luxuries, resources, etc...
Hell, we could easily operate and experience things impossible in reality in this world, such as been able to teleport around, or 'fly' without assistance of machines, granting us matrix like super powers and then some.
all these things, if they could be simulated in a virtual world, recreated endlessly without expense, except for powering and maintenance of the machines that allow this stuff...
then what meaning would there be left to human struggle?
Well... I guess at that point, the concept of personal wealth becomes something rather less meaningful... but at the beginning you would still face class and material problems, trying to get everyone hooked onto this matrix network.
But if it matured to the point where there was enough capacity to hook everyone up to this matrix, and all our wants were easily satisfied... then what purpose do we have left? I guess you can't live only in the matrix; you'd need people or robots to maintain the machinery and network... and indeed the people themselves; fed intravenously? We'd still need to dispose of waste... we are still humans afterall.
mmmm....