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Redvolition OP t1_ivs7l5m wrote

Reply to comment by proclamo in Perspectives on a Digital Existence by Redvolition

FDVR via isolated brains only requires three relatively low tech things:

  1. An artificial vascular system feeding the brain nutrients and essential chemicals. Has already been done in pig brains kept alive 36h in 2019, if I am not misremembering.
  2. Connection with sensory nerves that send and receive signals. There are already rudimentary technologies around this, mostly targeting prosthesis control and sensory implants.
  3. AI world generators. They don't even need to be fully realistic for being sufficiently immersive. Think of how many hours people dedicate to playing utterly unrealistic games.

Mind uploading, on the other hand, may require advanced nanotechnology or who knows what else.

On the philosophical side of the analysis, if we inspect human behavior, you will see that a large portion of us are essentialy pleasure seeking machines. We create entire colossal industries dedicated to nothing but mindless entertainment: games, anime, porn, film, and psychoactive drugs just to name the biggest ones.

For every person with complex long term aspirations, there are hoards that would be content with repetitive mindless pleasure within a synthetic reality. Comparing the most charming, endearing, heroic and romantinc real human lives with a fate of artificial pleasure as a plugged up brain ignores the vast swarths of humanity living mundane, gruesome, sickened, stressful, and humiliating existences. Maybe for the most fortuituous of us, switching to an artificial realm of being would be a downgrade in experience, but for most it will be the best thing that ever happened to them.

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proclamo t1_ivsmvul wrote

I have to find the study, but somebody tried to calculate the size of our memories in all live and it was like 120MB only, the "holes" we are constantly inventing them.

Almost all of us knows we can't be the herd alpha. Most people even don't try it, and other people like us takes the option to study and progress in our careers, mainly in knowledge works. We discover this provided us intellectual pleasure, and we'll find useful advantages of having literally everything at hand in a virtual reality. But this doesn't mean we don't want to be alphas, at least in our minimum local. I am with you, for some people will be the best experience of their lives, but my doubts are if they and us will be happy in a perfect experience like this.

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StarChild413 t1_ivwsw1o wrote

so, what, we should just plug into experience machines because capitalism sucks and we use drugs and read fiction instead of, I don't know, having real heroic quests defeating real villains or whatever the fuck

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