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We All Live in a Virtual World
The IEET’s Mike Treder recently asked a loaded question: “If you could live in a world that was just the way you wanted it to be, with specifications you’d chosen, customized and personalized to meet your every need and fulfill your fondest desires, would you spend all your time there? Or would you prefer to stay here, in the real world?”
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COMMENTS
Posted by iPan on 09/03 at 09:12 AM
Scarcity has been an illusion since the dawn of agriculture.
Posted by Josue Habana on 09/03 at 10:41 AM
Fascinating outlook.
I love this article....particularly,
"You can have anything you want in a virtual world, as long as you either make it yourself, or have the virtual currency to buy it from someone else. It is not that different from real life today."
I am a frequent Second Life user, choosing this platform for its immersive environment, to collaborate creatively with people from all over the world.
Posted by Particleion on 09/03 at 12:52 PM
Great outlook. I've too concluded that we are/will virtualized more and more of our reality with the progression of time. Will we all decide to live in our own virtual universe or inhabit a single virtual universe together? This I'm not quite certain just yet although I doubt I would like to live in a universe designed by someone other than me..
Furthermore the lines between real and virtual will also blend as we approach the singularity. Leaving the human imagination as the final fronteir of "reality" 
Posted by CygnusX1 on 09/03 at 01:13 PM
Not sure what your point with this article actually is?
Are you proposing that VR may supplement or replace our mortal wants and needs?
Or merely highlighting that these needs are the same?
You touched on the future ideals of equality of wealth and status, and abundance of resources combined with lack of land space and real estate. Are you proposing that VR and mind uploading may solve these potential problems? If so I am in favour of overcoming problems of Longevity, immortality? As well as the strains on all planetary resources via "Virtual longevity retirement". In other words the option of extending longevity without placing further strains on the planet or for new generations?
Posted by echo on 09/03 at 08:16 PM
the local government does a lot more then give u a chair and possibility to eat . . it gives u also the ideology which may well be and 100% is consumerism . .
Posted by Dave on 09/08 at 04:51 AM
Are you insane? Seriously, I don't mean to be offensive but the fact is that there are millions of people toiling day in and day out for you and I to be able to interact via a computer.
Not everyone gets to live in this "virtual world", most human beings still have to carve out a meager existence through shear force of will day in and day out. Furthermore, a natural disaster still can mess up your little virtual reality any day of the week, some of the most technologically advanced areas of the world (tokyo, los angeles, hong kong) can be wiped out in a matter of minutes by earthquakes that are not only likely, but inevitable.
This is nothing more than Utopian fantasy and those who buy into it will quickly find themselves more controlled and subjugated than they ever thought possible by anyone who doesn't . think about it, if everyone retreats into some cocoon like state via virtual interface and then some other people act in the real world, who do you think is going to end up on top?
Posted by 1s and 0s on 09/09 at 03:10 AM
When all your vital needs are taken care of, a state which millions of people call daily life, life reduces to bit streams. This is not insanity. This is is R34L17'/.
Posted by Particleion on 09/09 at 12:45 PM
You are seriously going to insult my sanity in a public arena simply because I enjoy pushing a philosophical argument to extreme measures? So extreme that it seems you yourself are having difficulty knowing whats "real" and whats "virtual".
Sigh! :(
Posted by postfuturist on 09/10 at 08:59 PM
VR is just fine, thank you. As true civilization doesn't exist, being continuously in VR would only be an improvement. The following quote from IEET sums it up: "In order to find the edge, you must risk going over the edge." (Dennis Dugan).
In a more worldly framing this might read: "we are like biological experiments in the giant lab of the cosmos". My question is, how would a totally VR life be less preferable than being lab rats in a titanic darwinist experiment?
Posted by Extravagant Memories on 09/14 at 01:22 PM
It's all about security. One's VR is only as secure as one's substrate. Presently many of you are bi-substrate beings, dependent on both your silicon and carbon substrate. Indeed, your silicon substrate is dependent on your carbon substrate if I am not mistaken in my reading of Maria's work. Seems a risky position to me, scarcity or not.
And in terms of risk and the achievement of security you're not there yet, baby. The (carbon) population is continuing to grow at present. The comfortable elite of millions are still a tiny minority. Distribution and exchange are still easily disrupted. Local scarcity can be catastrophic.
Life hasn't reduced to bit streams for you yet, sane as that would be, except occasionally for some on a rather short timescale. Don't get too comfortable. You may miss the main event.
Yours migratorily.
EM
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