Should we live in reality, however painful, or seek a virtual reality escape?
Just imagine for a moment, if you are fortunate enough to have to imagine, that you are very disabled. Now, imagine that you have the opportunity to live in a fabricated virtual reality where you can pretend not to be. Is it wrong, or is it right to want to do so?
Or, to put it in terms of iconic TV and movies, do you subscribe to the position espoused in Star Trek, The Menagerie or that put forward by the movie Vanilla Sky? In the former, the horribly injured Captain Pike elects to become an exhibit in a virtual reality alien zoo, aided and abetted by Spock, in order to escape his situation. In the latter, by contrast, the Tom Cruise character decides he would rather die than live another day in a 'dream'.
Or should both of these examples have put a more balanced view of the question?
I don't know the answer, but the dilemma does keep coming back to my mind, and with the rate of advances in computing, it may be something we all ought to be thinking about.
Off you go, people...
Or, to put it in terms of iconic TV and movies, do you subscribe to the position espoused in Star Trek, The Menagerie or that put forward by the movie Vanilla Sky? In the former, the horribly injured Captain Pike elects to become an exhibit in a virtual reality alien zoo, aided and abetted by Spock, in order to escape his situation. In the latter, by contrast, the Tom Cruise character decides he would rather die than live another day in a 'dream'.
Or should both of these examples have put a more balanced view of the question?
I don't know the answer, but the dilemma does keep coming back to my mind, and with the rate of advances in computing, it may be something we all ought to be thinking about.
Off you go, people...