TV, video games, internet - information technology is evolving towards Matrix-like virtual environment. It's not going to be forced on us by aliens, or intelligent machines. We are going to build it, and we are going to like it.
Cochlear implants and artificial retinas can already inject information directly into our brains, bypassing our senses. Artificial skin is being developed to provide a sense of touch to prosthetic limbs. Direct brain to brain communication was demonstrated, where one person was able to move another person's finger as if it was his own finger.
A virtual reality technology has been pretty lame so far. However, if traditional input/output devices are bypassed, people can experience it in a natural way. A brain does not care where the data came from - a computer, or your eyes - it's all just electrical signals. As long as that data is realistic enough, your brain will believe it. Every sensory experience from a real world can be recorded, analyzed, modified, and recreated in a virtual world. Sound, touch, smell, taste - they are just patterns of electrical activity to our brains.
After the technology is available, people are going to gradually migrate to this new social environment. Your physical body remains in the real world, where it can be connected to a sophisticated life-support machine, but most of the time you spent in the "Matrix". Virtual reality will be interfaced with a real world. There's no reason why it should be a closed, isolated environment. Anyone will be able to perform their jobs in the real world from the virtual one. A doctor can monitor your health as you lie down strapped to your life support machine. Even a surgery can be done remotely. If people don't want to leave the virtual world to do something in the real one, the technology will appear to make it possible.
Now, back to the entertainment - can you imagine being a god? Anything you can imagine will be possible. More than that - anything that anyone can imagine will be shared and experienced. Just like in the real world, people will create, buy, and sell good designs. A design can be anything - from a new pair of shoes, to an entire planet, to a weird feeling, to an experience of being a spider.
Your brain will believe it's real. Any you're going to like it.
Nope. If it's your reality, then you can do absolutely anything you want. Other people will have to play by your rules (if they want to be in your reality).
This is the same as if you created your own private video game.
If you actually want to interact with other people in a 'shared' reality, then of course you would have to follow rules set by whoever created that reality.
Cochlear implants and artificial retinas can already inject information directly into our brains, bypassing our senses. Artificial skin is being developed to provide a sense of touch to prosthetic limbs. Direct brain to brain communication was demonstrated, where one person was able to move another person's finger as if it was his own finger.
A virtual reality technology has been pretty lame so far. However, if traditional input/output devices are bypassed, people can experience it in a natural way. A brain does not care where the data came from - a computer, or your eyes - it's all just electrical signals. As long as that data is realistic enough, your brain will believe it. Every sensory experience from a real world can be recorded, analyzed, modified, and recreated in a virtual world. Sound, touch, smell, taste - they are just patterns of electrical activity to our brains.
After the technology is available, people are going to gradually migrate to this new social environment. Your physical body remains in the real world, where it can be connected to a sophisticated life-support machine, but most of the time you spent in the "Matrix". Virtual reality will be interfaced with a real world. There's no reason why it should be a closed, isolated environment. Anyone will be able to perform their jobs in the real world from the virtual one. A doctor can monitor your health as you lie down strapped to your life support machine. Even a surgery can be done remotely. If people don't want to leave the virtual world to do something in the real one, the technology will appear to make it possible.
Now, back to the entertainment - can you imagine being a god? Anything you can imagine will be possible. More than that - anything that anyone can imagine will be shared and experienced. Just like in the real world, people will create, buy, and sell good designs. A design can be anything - from a new pair of shoes, to an entire planet, to a weird feeling, to an experience of being a spider.
Your brain will believe it's real. Any you're going to like it.