[extropy-chat] Are the developed nations fleeing into virtual reality?

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Zero Powers <zero.powers at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 09:11:21 +0100, BillK
> <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Are we trying to avoid physical contact more and
> more?
> 
> Virtual life does have its advantages.  Personally I
> communicate more
> with (through?) my computer than with anyone else in
> my life.  But at
> the same time I am in touch with my loved ones far
> more than I was say
> 5 or 10 years ago.  My wife, kids and I are
> constantly IM'ing,
> emailing and cell phoning each other throughout the
> day.  So even
> though we're all busy doing our own thing, we're
> never out of touch.
> 
> As for actually going out into the muck of the real
> world, I'll only
> do it on occasion.  In addition to the horrendous
> traffic on the 405
> Fwy (which it seems I have to take no matter where I
> go here in L.A.),
> it's just not worth it to me to rush to get to a
> theatre on time, to
> eat stale popcorn and listen to other people talking
> while I'm trying
> to watch a movie.  I'd much rather get DVD's in the
> mail from Netflix
> and watch them in the comfort of my home in my bed,
> next to my wife
> with a bowl of freshly popped corn and a bottle of
> wine between us.
> 
> We still go out on occasion, but I'm usually
> disappointed by the
> effort and end up wishing I'd cocooned instead.  The
> only time I'm
> really out in public is when working out at the gym,
> and even then I'm
> tuned out to the outside world immersed in my
> workout and the 4000
> songs or so on the iPod.
> 
> Hi-diddledy-dee its the virtual life for me!

What Zero said.  There is a place for F2F, but it is
no longer necessarily the dominant role.  Commute
time eats in to one's allocated 24 hours per day.
I've even scored a major ($100K+) job that's pure
telecommuting, though I suspect I am an anomaly there.
It is not infrequent that the only reason I leave the
house is to walk to the grocery store as an excuse to
get some exercise - or if I set aside half an hour to
walk around the neighborhood for that purpose alone.

I sometimes wonder what impact this would have on the
drive for space colonization.  On the one hand, if
you're safe in your current abode, why shift?  On the
other, it may turn out that the appeal of off-planet
living comes more from a habitat designed for close
quarters and online living than from the physical
location one logs in from.  (Similar habitats on Earth
are labelled "arcologies", and none seem to have
gotten very far so far for various reasons.)