So many things have happened recently that I thought it was time to say something. It's an odd situation, really. A study in contradictions. At a time when the world is accessible to more and more people, and we have collected so much knowledge, the people of the world are becoming more isolated. The technology that has served to open up the world has also served to shut it in. The boundless opportunities of our "first life" are being passed over, more and more, in favor of a second life, and I don't just mean the eponymous online world, but the whole concept we used to call cyberspace....and which seems to me more and more like the matrix.
Not that I think the endeavors of virtual reality are immoral or banal; there are real applications that can benefit those of us in the real world. Star Trek:The Next Generation envisioned this 20 years ago, with the Holodeck, and more lasciviously, with the HoloSuite in ST:Deep Space 9. Those were true virtual worlds, were you could build simulations that looked and felt and operated like the real thing. Sort of combining the technologies of simulation and modeling software for complex systems (weather systems, human processes, network traffic) with graphic design and gaming, ergonomics, philosophy, psychology, and myriad other disciplines.
Imagine, if you will, that the warp core is about to explode, and you don't really understand why. Sensor readings don't tell you enough. But you can build a fully functioning virtual mockup, using the technical specifications (like maybe CADD/CAM data files), technical documentation, metallurgy reports, maintenance logs, and even, say, the design logs and project plans of the designer. Put all of this into a computer system, wave your magic wand, and walk into a simulation of your engine room. And talk with the designer. And look at and touch the components. And figure out that there's a misalignment, very minor, in the plasma conduit, due to a change in the metallurgical properties of one critical component, which affects the magnetic field, which affects the magnetic "pipe" directing your plasma flow. And you adjust the current to that component, fixing the magnetic field, and suddenly the plasma flow is correct again, and you've just saved everyone on the enterprise. That's really interesting stuff.
Now, let's say you are Boeing, and you are using 21st century technology to not only design your latest airliner (they did that with the 777) but you are also using virtual technology to put it together, walk through it, test tools, check locations, determine if things can be reached by humans, and even stress test the aircraft. Saving you millions on redesigns and retrofits that might have had to happen during construction, or worse, after deployment. (Remember the Comet? You probably don't, it was before my time by a short lifetime, but it was the first pressurized passenger liner, and it had a design flaw with it's square windows; it seems that metal fatigue caused microscopic cracks at the corners of the square windows. When those cracks expanded when the passenger cabin was pressurized, explosive decompression would occur at altitude. The Comet was grounded after two aircraft were lost with all souls. This was something that had to be fixed "after deployment".) That's really powerful stuff, and it will affect all of the flying public in the next 5 years.
To far away or specialized to wrap your head around? Ok, let's take the dilemma of the perfect pair of jeans. Do they exist? What if I find that ONE PERFECT PAIR and then I wear them so much, they wear out, and I NEVER find them again?????? Well, what if I told you you could have your body scanned, and that Levi's will make you a custom pair of jeans, fit just for you. This exists today. Read more about it at the website for Cornell University: http://www.bodyscan.human.cornell.edu/scene0605.html
So, let's look 5 years into the future. Your avatar will walk in to a clothing store in second life, and using your body, because you scanned it, it will try on clothes. And you will see how they fit you, how they drape, and if they make you look thinner. Maybe you will even be able to "feel" the weight and texture of the fabric. Don't like the way it fits? For a few dollars more, customize it. Change the fit. Change the fabric. And have the "salesperson" give you an opinion on how the clothes look on you. Oh, and you can have a special avatar that's just for clothes shopping, and looks like you to you, but looks "tall, thin, and blonde" to everyone else in the virtual world. Then pull out your virtual credit card, and order your real goods with real money. And have them shipped to you in the real world. Or test out the controls on that new, fancy, cell phone to see if you like the buttons, or the menu, or the screen, or the features. Or any number of "try it before you buy it" options that might dramatically improve customer satisfaction, cut down on returns, and, hopefully, impact the design process, so the manufacturer does not produce 1 million copies of a product with a serious ergonomic or feature flaw.
These are all great things, and they will contribute to safety, and to making things better and more affordable.
So, to use a coin metaphore, that's the obverse, the front of the coin. What about the reverse? What about people who never leave home, who go to a virtual grocery store, and have their groceries delivered to their brick and mortar home? who totally isolate themselves from the world by immersing themselves in their second life, completely abdicating claim on their first life? It's happened before. With TV -- couch potatoes. With computer bulletin boards. With PC games. With game consoles. With online gambling. With the Sims. And now with Warcraft and Second life. Even with non-technological pursuits, like Dungeons and Dragons. And of course, with the origins of all addictive behavior, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and sex. There has been and will continue to be a segment of the population that is vulnerable to addiction to the type of escapism these things represent. But in the past, you had to go to the real store to buy your booze. As technology becomes more pervasive, so too do the temptations of escapism that technology can offer.
I can foresee a schizm in the development of the human race, much the same way finches differentiated themselves in the Galapagos, between "second lifers" and "first lifers". Will we become two separate species? Will legs become vestigial for seconds? Will eyes adapt differently to deal with images in 1080i? Will our tastebuds and pain receptors quit working because all of our stimulus comes from the virtual world?
Some researchers published a paper about how spatial memory is stored. They identified a brain chemical that inhibits memory recall of memories that have already been stored. This was research designed to understand how memory works, not in an effort to produce a drug. But these resarchers have been asked by several people to help them wipe out their memories, because of traumatic things that have happened to them. This is a common theme in science fiction, and has been explored from many different angles. But who would have thought that it might be within the realm of possibility now?
Technology is as Technology does. Or, more precisely, Techonology is as humanity does.
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