02-03-2013, 08:30 PM
This topic is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping would come up.
I'm interested in the freedom of the Net, combined with the not-quite-realness of it. For all the prowess of the modern video game, there are still frequent issues of latency in multiplayer (where experiences do not quite sync up) and graphical oddities. Considering how complex and data-intensive a complete virtual world would be, I see no reason to suppose that these issues would completely disappear. For very high quality games, it's easy to suspend your disbelief, but I suspect there would still be an 'uncanny valley' in virtual reality: that is, the closer you get to fully realistic representation without matching it exactly, the more eerie and off-putting it is for the participant. For this reason, I can imagine a virtual orgasm of 99.7% fidelity being almost terrifying.
In other words, I imagine the Net as a place where people can live almost their entire life without concern, but I also imagine the Net as a place that many will view with some suspicion.
I also imagine there will be a significant, older population (where, in light of medical advances, human life expectancy might reach an average of 110) that will be extremely skeptical and uncomfortable with the Net, some of whom may not even have the neural implant at all.
I envisioned the Net as akin to the internet; a series of loosely-connected hubs of varying quality. Anyone can make a virtual space in the Net (just as anyone can make a shitty Wordpress website), but the vast majority are going to be uninteresting, largely vacant, and unmaintained. Many cities, on the other hand, will have a virtual replication of their city as a public offering, at much higher quality (and much stricter regulation and observation).
All of this to say: There will be gaming in the Net, and it will be high fidelity, and it will involve direct feedback (to potentially include pain and suffering), but the feedback, though more sensational than Waking World experiences, would still have a flavor of the uncanny.
(Feel free to disagree with any/all of this post)
I'm interested in the freedom of the Net, combined with the not-quite-realness of it. For all the prowess of the modern video game, there are still frequent issues of latency in multiplayer (where experiences do not quite sync up) and graphical oddities. Considering how complex and data-intensive a complete virtual world would be, I see no reason to suppose that these issues would completely disappear. For very high quality games, it's easy to suspend your disbelief, but I suspect there would still be an 'uncanny valley' in virtual reality: that is, the closer you get to fully realistic representation without matching it exactly, the more eerie and off-putting it is for the participant. For this reason, I can imagine a virtual orgasm of 99.7% fidelity being almost terrifying.
In other words, I imagine the Net as a place where people can live almost their entire life without concern, but I also imagine the Net as a place that many will view with some suspicion.
I also imagine there will be a significant, older population (where, in light of medical advances, human life expectancy might reach an average of 110) that will be extremely skeptical and uncomfortable with the Net, some of whom may not even have the neural implant at all.
I envisioned the Net as akin to the internet; a series of loosely-connected hubs of varying quality. Anyone can make a virtual space in the Net (just as anyone can make a shitty Wordpress website), but the vast majority are going to be uninteresting, largely vacant, and unmaintained. Many cities, on the other hand, will have a virtual replication of their city as a public offering, at much higher quality (and much stricter regulation and observation).
All of this to say: There will be gaming in the Net, and it will be high fidelity, and it will involve direct feedback (to potentially include pain and suffering), but the feedback, though more sensational than Waking World experiences, would still have a flavor of the uncanny.
(Feel free to disagree with any/all of this post)
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Mal Nova Wrote:I do apologize for using the word rape. There are four separate definitions for the word rape, two of which describe vegetation...