Yes, this is really the sort of thing I dream about.
I just woke up from a nap. This is what I dreamt:
In the near future a small percent of the population is invited to migrate to a massive data center where they will join a digitally simulated utopia. Entrants will undergo massive nanomechanical alteration to prevent personal physiological fluctuations from disrupting the simulation (both for themselves and fellow citizens), which is generally considered a small price to pay for entry into a society free of the petty evils of millennia of unchecked human nature. Once the initial surgery is complete, necessary ports are installed, nanites activated (and intra-mechanical communication established by necessary distribution of the nanites by the circulatory system), one finds oneself in the brighter, better world. It's not some ultrasanitary "Logan's Run", just a slight tweaking of percentages (i.e. how would society be different if the slowest, bitterest, most spiteful 10% were not invited to exist?).
This is the new Eden.
Inside this simulated world there are further simulations, not unlike a Star Trek style "Holodeck" where limited scenarios may be played. There are additionally games that correspond to the ones we're familiar with. In these simulations, single tasks are, themselves, handled by games, and each step of "nesting" is less complex than that which contains it. All problem solving in the simulated society involves navigating up and down these process trees, moving from game to minigame to mini-minigame and back until the next time a move into a finer, more limited scenario is required. The language of the society reflects this, as one would describe one's activities in the day as a function of "logs", i.e. to solve this problem, I logged into this sim. From within that sim, I logged into this sub-sim. Ironically, this vernacular use of "log" corresponds with its mathematical function as well, as each of these steps DOES constitute a shift in magnitude in terms of complexity. One could express the days degree of activity in the overall aggregate, i.e. the number of times they moved between structures of greater and lesser complexity.
These games, sims, minigames, and minisims are actually a real-time programming interface for the nanomechanical web that is integrating with their physical bodies. As the nanites alter and/or replace the body, problems, obstacles, and different redesign options are presented to the user as games or minigames. Their "entertainment" is actually an elaborate design and operation execution process. Citizens are not aware of this.
Further, their consciousness necessarily operates on increasingly constrained variables. The entire simulated society, itself, consists of one degree of removal from the complexity of physical reality. Any further activity within the "games" further constrains it: No matter how many or few sub-games they interact with, regardless of the degree of process nesting, the end aggregate will be of less complexity than the start. Each day the range of possible variables for which there are not already defined functions (results of previous games) will get smaller, and each of these decisions brings about direct physical changes.
Eventually a persons defined function set will reach a degree of constraint where input from other users is no longer necessary to maintain the simulation, their presence in the "society". At this point they may safely disconnect from the actual social hardware without disrupting other users perception of their presence: after all, their presence and choices have become a mathematically definable function. A simulacra may take their place in the consensual simulation.
Similiarly, the necessary range of their own interaction with the consensual simulation has become a mathematically definable function: the people they need to talk to, the places they go, etc. The vast majority of the sim could disappear, and they would not notice. As such, those portions of the sim necessary to maintain their experience may be locally stored for seamless transition when their now-automated physical body (which likely bears no resemblance to what it once was) disconnects from the network.
Eventually a point will be reached when the simplest means of preserving their presence within the simulation will be a physical network disconnect to prevent introduction of aberrant data from "new citizens".
Imagine a vast plain dotted with all variety of cybernetic beasts. Some graze, some hunt. Their external behavior is simple, determined by necessity for continued function within the means determined by design and preferred method of problem solving. These leopards, elephants, gazelles, and crocodiles were once human, but now are both beast and vehicle.
Within is the psyche of men and women who no longer care if their chess partners are actually there.
This is the new Eden, the new Genesis. No one promised we would be the new Adam or the new Eve.
In the near future a small percent of the population is invited to migrate to a massive data center where they will join a digitally simulated utopia. Entrants will undergo massive nanomechanical alteration to prevent personal physiological fluctuations from disrupting the simulation (both for themselves and fellow citizens), which is generally considered a small price to pay for entry into a society free of the petty evils of millennia of unchecked human nature. Once the initial surgery is complete, necessary ports are installed, nanites activated (and intra-mechanical communication established by necessary distribution of the nanites by the circulatory system), one finds oneself in the brighter, better world. It's not some ultrasanitary "Logan's Run", just a slight tweaking of percentages (i.e. how would society be different if the slowest, bitterest, most spiteful 10% were not invited to exist?).
This is the new Eden.
Inside this simulated world there are further simulations, not unlike a Star Trek style "Holodeck" where limited scenarios may be played. There are additionally games that correspond to the ones we're familiar with. In these simulations, single tasks are, themselves, handled by games, and each step of "nesting" is less complex than that which contains it. All problem solving in the simulated society involves navigating up and down these process trees, moving from game to minigame to mini-minigame and back until the next time a move into a finer, more limited scenario is required. The language of the society reflects this, as one would describe one's activities in the day as a function of "logs", i.e. to solve this problem, I logged into this sim. From within that sim, I logged into this sub-sim. Ironically, this vernacular use of "log" corresponds with its mathematical function as well, as each of these steps DOES constitute a shift in magnitude in terms of complexity. One could express the days degree of activity in the overall aggregate, i.e. the number of times they moved between structures of greater and lesser complexity.
These games, sims, minigames, and minisims are actually a real-time programming interface for the nanomechanical web that is integrating with their physical bodies. As the nanites alter and/or replace the body, problems, obstacles, and different redesign options are presented to the user as games or minigames. Their "entertainment" is actually an elaborate design and operation execution process. Citizens are not aware of this.
Further, their consciousness necessarily operates on increasingly constrained variables. The entire simulated society, itself, consists of one degree of removal from the complexity of physical reality. Any further activity within the "games" further constrains it: No matter how many or few sub-games they interact with, regardless of the degree of process nesting, the end aggregate will be of less complexity than the start. Each day the range of possible variables for which there are not already defined functions (results of previous games) will get smaller, and each of these decisions brings about direct physical changes.
Eventually a persons defined function set will reach a degree of constraint where input from other users is no longer necessary to maintain the simulation, their presence in the "society". At this point they may safely disconnect from the actual social hardware without disrupting other users perception of their presence: after all, their presence and choices have become a mathematically definable function. A simulacra may take their place in the consensual simulation.
Similiarly, the necessary range of their own interaction with the consensual simulation has become a mathematically definable function: the people they need to talk to, the places they go, etc. The vast majority of the sim could disappear, and they would not notice. As such, those portions of the sim necessary to maintain their experience may be locally stored for seamless transition when their now-automated physical body (which likely bears no resemblance to what it once was) disconnects from the network.
Eventually a point will be reached when the simplest means of preserving their presence within the simulation will be a physical network disconnect to prevent introduction of aberrant data from "new citizens".
Imagine a vast plain dotted with all variety of cybernetic beasts. Some graze, some hunt. Their external behavior is simple, determined by necessity for continued function within the means determined by design and preferred method of problem solving. These leopards, elephants, gazelles, and crocodiles were once human, but now are both beast and vehicle.
Within is the psyche of men and women who no longer care if their chess partners are actually there.
This is the new Eden, the new Genesis. No one promised we would be the new Adam or the new Eve.