The desire for other worlds.
Never has it been more evident how human of a trait it is to seek alternate ways of experiencing existence.
Now more than ever we’re seeking various ways to experience the world. There’s the enhanced push towards psychedelics research, the desire to find out more about what lies in distant space, and the desire to create and manipulate virtual worlds all while exploring the world that occurs between our synapses.
All these seem to be an attempt to figure out what living a very different way than we currently do, would be like. To experience is human. To seek alternate experiences seems to be even more so and no more time than now does it seem that we are fed up with day-to-day existence. But what about the contrasts that come with the various paths? What does it mean for humanity to be a virtual and simultaneously interstellar being? What does it mean for a vast sum of humanity to abandon physical consciousness and exist in a large virtual space?
Split experiences in our modern world.
Many may argue that this is what is currently going on with a vast portion of people spending their lives in the confines of their portable devices. I’ll admit I have a Twitter addiction of sorts. One tied to my constant craving for information. Occasionally, I ask myself what it’s like for people not to be on Twitter.
At one point in time, I found myself getting access to information many would hear about months if not years later. There are instances when one is in tune with the current geopolitical occurrences going on to a precision of what feels like seconds. And since journalists love Twitter, one gets a sort of first-hand view of the occurrences taking place. The Beruit explosion, terrorist attacks, and the political ramifications of Trump’s tweets were all massive occurrences that many had a first-hand view of due to being on Twitter.
Being on Twitter also meant experiencing the dawn of the coronavirus insurgence right before the exponential growth of the virus started looking “exponential”. I witnessed the frailty and bias of media institutions in covering its growth. But I also realized the benefit of following just the right accounts in that I was privy to the fact that the virus was going to be a big deal.
In this way, it’s almost as if the difference of information one receives generally makes it feel like I’m living an alternate existence even though I live on planet earth with you. It is also in this way if not more dramatic that the advantages and disadvantages of an added dimension of experiences would reveal themselves. But this is just a tiny example of the ways in which our information diet is formed explicitly by our environment and how that influences what we perceive as reality. Take into account our various regional environments, local cultures, etc, and you realize that we already live an existence that can be largely fractured as is although somewhat miniaturized by the internet.
What if we increased the number of dimensions we received information by a lot more?
I felt this topic interesting as I felt it unexplored with the exception of a few sci-fi books. We often think of pursuing alternate ways of experiencing existence. But what if these modes went mainstream and we gradually drift even more so due to the varying importance of the various forms of existence.
A virtual world depending on its structure may reveal various inequities so vile due to the infinite possibilities that exist in the world of bits. A man living a life of opulence could still be broke in material reality. But the dopamine hit of the beauty of the other world leaves him unable to leave. While this scenario has been explored in movies like The Matrix, what if the inverse happened instead? What if the virtual world instead becomes a place restricted to elites. One offering unimaginable benefits, but only for those being able to pay?
What about Martian settlers, forced to adopt new norms and forms of speech. What about the growth of new mythologies in such a world? What about their personal identity and how they feel it ties them to a place of origin like the earth?
As speculative, as this brief essay is, and as unrealistic as many of the possibilities presented may be, I still hope others are thinking about all this as well. Sure we may never get to Mars or accomplish Brain-Computer interfaces of the magnitude we want. Alternate Reality devices may never come to a point where they expand the experience of human existence and all the complexities that may come therewith. But what if they do? We have yet to deal with the complexities our simple smartphones have brought on us, or the various apps many of us are glued to. What if a more drastic means of escape presents itself? I simply hope that we are ready for the possibility of such realities.
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