How happy could you be if you had to live the rest of your life in a holodeck? (Think Star Trek)

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

You are doomed to live the rest of your life in a holodeck all by yourself.

You have complete control over programming.

You get to choose ten people you know from real life to be simulated. These ten simulations will be far superior to the other characters in the holodeck. These ten people are so real, you wouldn’t know that a particular simulation wasn’t actually your wife, daughter, best friend etc… unless you had prior knowledge of it.

To expand: If you were to ask one of these simulations, “Hey, you remember that time we went to that Kiss concert back in’76” The simulation would be able to respond appropriately, as it has all the memories of the person you simulated.

While a “regular” simulation might be quite adroit at passing a turing test, if you start asking it about old times spent together, it’s not going to know how to respond as it doesn’t have the memories downloaded into it’s matrix.

So, after going through the initial “WTF?” or grieving process, how happy do you think you could be?

#2

I’ll eat that lotus.

#3

I’ll be happy, but not happier because I won’t have my real family with me.

#4

Would it be fighting the hypothetical to ask how I’m going to be financially supported? Because I think that would make a big difference.

#5

Am I truly isolated from the real world in there? Or am I just confined, but able to interact with the outside?

#6

The Federation is a post-scarcity society. Everyone is provided for according to their needs.

#7

Well, as stated in the OP, you have control over the programming. So, if you want to be a billionaire or a working class Joe, it’s all up to you. And you’re free to change that programming as often as you like.

#8

No you are isolated. No outside contact.

#9

Then, no. I could not be truly happy there at all.

#10

Will I be there at my current age, with my current health problems? Can’t I be simulated too?

Besides, I’d be miserable without my husband. The real one.

Aside from these issues, I’d love it.

#11

Can I choose dead people among the ten? Obviously (well, maybe not obviously, this is the internet) I don’t want them dead in the holodeck - I mean can I have a couple of convincing illusions of living people who are dead out in the real world?

I still don’t think I’d do it - I couldn’t abandon people out here who love me and need me. But at some point in my life I might. Go all Captain Pike, and get to meet a relative or two I never got to meet, and ‘revive’ some more.

#12

Happier than I am now, but that isn’t saying much. I refuse to believe anyone is happy!

#13

Would I still have access to my Steam account?

#14

Why only ten? Would there be any AI only characters, like in the fictional constructs? Could I watch movies in any way?

Since ST holodecks work with replicator technology to give me physical stuff, is that the case here too?

#15

+1

I don’t mind living in virtual reality to a certain extent, but I think people (me at least) need a certain amount of pressure in order to be their best. Real work and real worries. Real achievements. Simulated problems are not the same thing.

That said, my overall happiness level could be very similar to where I am now… which is… well, a mixed bag at the moment.

#16

This “Technology will Save Us!” meme is getting way, way, out of control.

Let me guess - those who would jump at the chance would also want to make themselves immortal, right?

This question gets down to the "Which is the REAL person - the one who walked into the Transporter, or the one who came out of the other?

Now we want a transporter to “take” us to a 100% Virtual World.

Call me old-fashioned, but this would be attractive only if I was actively dying (Hello, Mr. Zimmerman!). Presumably there would be somewhere else I’d prefer to be.
Still, I’d want that to be the place I die, not a place where I can live for “virtually forever”.

After the first billion or so years, those 10 people will be just as bored as you are.

“Hey! Let’s all go to that little galaxy over by the great burger joint!”

“We’ve done that 73,497 times already”.
“You’ve f*cked every creature you have created, and every creature we have created”.
"We’ve seen every friggin kind of sunset in the history of the entire friggin’ Universe (the term now means “holodeck”). 42 MILLION times.

At some time, I want to rest. Reality provides this guarantee. Some people get cheated, some get their dream and live to 100 - as a shriveled-up raisin who’s biggest thrill is having somebody pick it up and put it in a wheelchair and rolled out onto the porch.

I ain’t going there.

#17

Couldn’t you just program the holodeck to kill you once you become bored?

#18

Love it!
Not only do we give our lives over to a machine, but we give it the ability to “kill” the only remaining trace of ourselves.

How many have found a bug in software?

Here’s question:
OK, I’m now some bit of memory in some cloud* of some sort. Will the 10 “kinda real” people remember me? Will the 100% virtual people remember me?
Will those memories persist after “my” bit of memory gets overwritten?

Try this: After some eternity or another, there is a bug found in Holodeck 3972.5027.0007 - the latest and greatest. I somehow find a patch for this bug. Does that patch remain after I’m wiped and over-written?

    • we are going to dwell in the Heavens with the Lord Holodeck! Are the streets paved with gold?
#19

You’ll never be completely over-written. There will always be a snapshot of a previous usedtobe version saved during weekly backups. At least if this is GoogleHolodeck.

#20

I’m not seeing a way I’d genuinely be happy. I’d always know that nobody else there was real, and that’s not something I could forget unless/until I went crazy. Whether I was happy after that point would be debatable.