Infinite Reality: The Hidden Blueprint of Our Virtual Lives

by Jim Blascovich

Barring worldwide catastrophes such as nuclear conflagration, collision of Earth with a large asteroid, or runaway global warming, sooner or later technology will enable anybody to interact with anybody else in the world, positively or negatively, via virtual reality. People will have many tools available to influence one another in ways impossible in the physical world. And, just for good measure, everything everybody does will be archived,

potentially making privacy an archaic

con...

Here is a little experiment readers can try. Find several willing friends and have everyone stand in a single-file line, or in a circle, with their eyes closed and everyone close enough so that each person can reach around the one in front of them and gently rub the end of that person’s nose. Most everyone will feel as if they are touching their own nose, even though they know they’re not. Their own finger movements and the tactile sensations of rubbing the nose of the person in front of them, and the feeling of the finger of the person behind them on their own nose, overrides their knowledge that their fingers are not on their own noses. Can digital avatars be integrated into one’s sense of self in an analogous manner?

In his novel The City and the Stars, Arthur C. Clarke described how people could live forever by archiving themselves within an advanced computer.

“The Year 2100,”

Given what we know about people’s desire to live forever, and how much more quickly digital technology is advancing compared to biological solutions to aging, virtual identity archiving will be one of the main areas of development in the coming years.