©Grok
In a recent conversation with Joe Rogan, Elon Musk spoke about the power of his Optimus robotics technology and artificial intelligence to create a utopian society where people would no longer be required to work and would earn a universal income that allows everyone to live a comfortable life. Even though both of the men in this conversation seem to derive purpose from their respective vocations, they fully believed that others would be entirely satisfied spending their lives in a virtual reality created by AI. Steven Spielberg actually warned of the dangers of living this way in his movie, Ready Player One, but for some reason, Musk seems to see this as the ideal rather than the warning.
Around the same time as this conversation took place, I read an article about the growing need for the expansion of electrical grids to feed the processing power of AI and digital currency markets. Ironically, we’ve responded to years of lazy and inefficient computer programming and bloated frameworks with bigger and faster hard drives and processors which require an increasing supply of energy to run. As we turn more and more of our lives over to the byproducts of this lazy programming and teach AI to follow suit, our need for energy will eventually overtake our ability to supply it.
We learned from the Pixar creation, Wall-E, that people who spend their entire lives at ease on a celestial cruise ship consuming their favorite foods and entertainment lose muscle mass and bone density to the point where they can no longer handle living on a planet with a gravitational pull. So if people are eager to live in Elon Musk’s world of unearned income and virtual reality, it makes me wonder what level of atrophy and obesity will result from it.
One solution could be to use the Optimus robots to actively sustain our bodies indefinitely while we continue to experience these virtual worlds. Think about how satisfying it could be for the average person to experience life as a 1%-er. We could virtually connect with our friends and loved ones and be served by computer-generated chefs and janitors and massage therapists and doctors. We could experience life eating gourmet meals, trying new sports, visiting the wonders of the world, experiencing sunsets, and shopping until our hearts are content.
There’d be no need for tipping, no homeless people at the side of the road, no one strung out on drugs, and no guilt that comes with living a life of leisure while others struggle to exist. Criminals could be banished to a virtual plane that is separate from everyone else, but many of the motivations to commit crimes would evaporate in this world because everyone would own a comfortable mansion with virtual housekeepers, and we could even participate in the building of our worlds like the kids have done with games like Minecraft. There would be no need for war and no worry of government overreach because all of our needs would be met in the virtual world.
Imagine being able to explore the oceans, the depths of space, or instantly be able to visit colonies on other planets? In the material world, teleportation is not available to us, but it would be in the virtual world, and there would be no more TSA, grueling travel schedules, lost luggage, or uncomfortable flights. Imagine being able to revisit fond memories or have extremely realistic virtual pets that would never grow old or die? Imagine being in control of your own appearance so that you are no longer uncomfortable in your body? There would be no more botched plastic surgeries, no more issues with gender or racial identity, no debilitating accidents, no “regertable” tattoos.The virtual world could contain enough challenges to make life worthwhile but keep them from becoming overwhelming. Instead of worrying about where our next meal would come from, we would be free to pursue romance, learn an instrument, or increase our education.
To solve the energy crisis generated by such an experience, the robots that sustain our bodies could also harvest energy from them. After all, we are like little nuclear power plants. There would be no more need for fossil fuels that pollute the environment, and our bodies could be sustained with lab-grown nutrients since our food fantasies would be satisfied virtually. Because we would no longer be poisoning ourselves with junk food, pharmaceuticals, or poor environmental choices, our lifespans and usefulness would know no bounds.
The bodies of the people who meet and fall in love in the virtual world could be used to produce offspring that grows and is sustained in the same way so that the coming generations would have no knowledge of the world outside of the virtual one. This way, the population could be reasonably sustained and used to benefit the earth rather than harm it. Those who still lived in the material world would be the highly skilled overseers of the virtual system and the source of new material for the AI to train as they explore the universe. They would also have intellectual property rights for new discoveries that occur in the virtual world and always have the option to become part of the virtual world if they so desired.
Does this sound appealing to you? If so, forget Ready Player One. Welcome to the Matrix.