How different will the world map look after the transition from a 4T to a 1T...

[MillsT_98]

(07-30-2016, 10:16 PM)taramarie Wrote:

(07-30-2016, 06:20 PM)disasterzone Wrote:

(07-29-2016, 12:34 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: We are seeing the Crisis of the transition to an age without scarcity of the basics of life. Computer power is so cheap that anyone who wishes to get any worthy material for enjoyment can get it (already true -- as we have free access to a plethora of books and concerts) . 3D printing will make centralized production and distribution of trinkets a non-distinction in life. Commodity fetishes will become irrelevant. Status symbols will lose their significance. Virtual reality will allow people to have a windowless apartment (that will allow mass housing of a form that we have never tolerated) with a simulation of a great view. You could be in Kansas City and have an excellent view of the (San Francisco) Bay from your "bay window". Or maybe the Kansas City stockyards if such is your taste.

Of course, real estate will not be cheap barring a genocidal war that decimates humanity. People will get simulated views and even experiences of vacations. One might even get a simulation of climbing Mount Everest (I have no desire to do the real thing -- it's just too dangerous and difficult for my taste).

We will be working far fewer hours than was the norm at the end of the last 4T -- barring the catastrophic destruction of cities as during World War II.  The tools of warfare are much deadlier than those that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Do you think the future will be where people are so addicted to virtual reality that they don't interact with other people often? Where people spend more time in virtual parks then actual parks and where people don't form relationships because they're constantly with virtual partners? Where people refuse to go outside or interact with people because the virtual world is more fascinating? Kind of like being trapped in a Matrix.

That is already happening now.

Who would run this virtual infrastructure? There is a possibility that this virtual infrastructure could turn out to be better than our own so people in the real world would end up wanting to stay there. If everyone does that, would we be able to run the virtual world from the inside? How would we even take care of ourselves in the real world if we were trapped inside the virtual one? Or we would not need to because our bodies will have evolved past that, but that wouldn't happen for thousands of years.