That’s from William Gibson, one of my favourite authors. In the novels, he makes it sound far more enticing, far more specific. Other SF writers have described weird and wonderful ‘other’ countries of the mind that people can share via computer.
What kind of cyberlands do you inhabit, strive for or imagine?
The most perfect cyberspace would give the mind enough data to form a worldspace. I can envision this because I am almost blind in one eye, and I should be seeing in 2D. Yet my other eye is near perfect and apparently delivers enough info for my brain to build a worldspace. Its like skyrim or given open world game, except the human brain can build a worldspace in ultra high definition.
The question is then; how much of the real world is accurate. All info derives in origins from derivative informations in the world. The brain builds a worldspace from that, but the fastest way a comparable computer could achieve this, would be to have a cloud database of 3D models, to wit the human mind has an equivalent set of visual objects. The computer/AI/human brain, will utilise the least proportion of processing-in-time, to achieve instant and perpetual visioning of the world. In other words it will update with every observation, it will collect derivative informations from the world, and blend/calibrate them with the pre-made world model ~ for expediency.
I would imagine that the pre-model - let us call it, ~ the worldspace the mind already has in its perception/observation, gathers info and builds in its accuracy upon successive builds of said worldspace.
Waking on a beach at sunrise, is less real than being awake midday.
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The real world is whatever it is. What we understand of it is different for each person. So, I suppose, a virtual world, too, would be different for each of us, according to our understanding and ability to perceive. If the electrodes were inserted deep enough into the correct parts of the brain, I suppose we could live a virtual life in a pretend-world programmed for us. This could be a boon to comatose or paralyzed patients that we hadn’t the heart or guts or whatever it takes to put down. It could also be a medium in which the socially incompetent, the physically disabled or unattractive, the institutionalized, bed-ridden or house-bound could find a more acceptable substitute for their life. Social media are already tending in that direction for young people who don’t really need an alternate life, but choose it for various reasons.
Why? If the built world is skyrim for example, and everyone reports everything as being there in the synonymous sense, that e.g. A treasure chest exist at location x,y,z, in a Nordic ruin, and has say an ancient Nordic sword which is golden and blue sapphire, then we can all agree that our shared experience is corroborated. There is surprisingly little that the finely tuned instrument that is the human form, cannot perceive or find tech to convert to their perception. Remember also that machines are equally corroborating the information.
There are also things which cannot be corroborated, like for example, peoples emotional reactions and concerns. Then that the subjective observer sees a different rainbow to any given other perspective observer. Where the worlds match there exists a world, and where they don’t, there exists illusion.
I see your point, but as the body requires exercise to remain healthy, i’d suggest ultralight and powerful robotic exoskeletons. They could do most of the work in walking and running, and denote an increasing proportion of the work/effort to the user. Eventually i think people e.g. In city centres people will majoritively use such devices, as you rarely get past 30 in a car, you may as well park them outside and run into town. Existing roads can become run-ways lol.
See how the future doesn’t have to be lethargic. Just having flyers [cars etc], ultra-light vehicles and robots, + factories in single machines which can build the same as itself again, then exoskeletons and your own business [most would eventually i think], social life etc, would promote a positive life experience. And probably many different real-resolution 3D worlds [finally; for the comatose].
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I’m imagining the potential for aerial mayhem! Probably won’t happen, though - the future keeps changing before we get there.
What I mean by different cyberspaces was not that you couldn’t share a virtual reality with thousands or millions of other people - we’re doing it right now. The framework is given; the limits to our capabilities are set; the rules are stated. Within that scope, we agree to share a temporary time/space/activity/presence. But you have a lot more choices: you can leave here at any moment - in fact, you may already have done so, and your absence doesn’t affect my experience - and go play War Hammer or solitaire; you can study, carry on a chat, write a blog, up- or down-load a video, look at dirty pictures (and, not too far in the future, enter them) or whatever you want. And that choice of activities will be as different from all your fellow forum members as you want it to be.
Yes, that and why not what i added too. I can see a future where beneficial things keep getting added to the populous. It seems inevitable to me that flying cars will happen, then sky lanes, then a cloud database of all objects and their locations for computer aided navigation. I think flying cars [especially after seeing two rc helicopters lift a woman on youtube], will be as easy to fly as dodgems are to drive. There will be less working days, and many more creative jobs, so i can see people spending long periods in 3d worlds, and almost all their time in a duel cyber/real world enhance environment, and a place where all calls and communications happen.
The whole thing just needs 3D carbon printing to happen.
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I’m going in the Cryo-chamber now. Tell Leela to wake me in 3015.
Be careful, Amorphos, when crafting your future, that you do not fall into the trap of the Matrix.
This is a trap I mentioned earlier…people who are averse to life, try to reinvent the wheel, only they create a lower quality brand of wheel, a substitute wheel, that everyone revels in, simply because it is something they created, trapped in the whirlwind of their own self-aggrandizement. Like rap music, a rejection of classical music and reinvention of music…a lower quality brand of wheel, that everyone revels in, and eventually the goodness of Mozart is forgotten, and abandoned, replaced by a lower quality of Reality. Beware of the lure of virtual land…Uploading one’s consciousness into a computer is not the cure, it is damnation…A locust hive of flying cars in an overpopulated steel metropolis will never replace the beauty of nature.
Use your plans only to augment Reality, never to replace it.
Neuromancer is the only one of his I’ve read. It was a good read, though I found it difficult to follow at times.
Data banks and information exchange are what I dig most about cyberspace. The ability the experience life via the senses of another person would be incredibly cool, like in neuromancer.
My favourite is Spook Country, but it doesn’t deal with cyberspace; Count Zero is perhaps the best example of that vision.
Trixie Z
Yes, but there always will be the one! Lol
There will remain competition, brilliance, but people who can’t sing, will still think they can sing ~ if you take the analogy.
With computers having a cloud database of objects, it will be very simple to put ideas together in visual form and hence augment nature. i quite like the idea of having a house made of sapphire, with furnishings made from rough cuts of oak ~ or some such thing. I think flying cars will bring back mud roads and walkways through the woods. When food and products are synthesised, the earth can return to natural woodlands etc. Eventually all sanitation and needs will be addressed etc, etc. It doesn’t have to be negative, and we do it now or after some time it will be too late = epic fail for the whole of humanity.
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