You know what would be really cool? An Internet sort of thing. Follow me if you can.
We already play p2p games such as Warcraft, etc. Wouldn’t it be realy cool if I could play a game like SoulCaliber with my friend who lives across the country, but we could actually be sitting in the “same” room and playing together. We wouldn’t be physically there, but we could interact, and talk, and chat, just like IRL.
Simple things that you miss out on IRL! And then we could do it around the world. I don’t have to be separated from my Indian cousins. If we could both somehow get into our own holodecks, and then the two holodecks could be overlapped somehow, it would be like we were right next to each other.
Sports and fitness training. You can have a holo version of the best instructor in the Galaxy, or, heck, with good programming, in history, give you one-on-one instruction, in the perfect setting, with all the best equipment.
Study yoga with B. K. S. Iyengar on a beautiful white-sand beach with soothing waves in the background, without the bother of insects, gusts of wind, or other distractions.
Get tips on your fadeaway jumper from Michael Jordan. When you’re in the zone, you can stay in the zone, because you have an infinite supply of basketballs, each appearing in your hand when you’re ready for the next shot, then disappearing after they hit the floor.
All those fancy computer diagnostics the professional athletes train with to perfect their form? All built right in.
Go running, biking, skating, etc. on any trail you like, with perfect weather every day. Want some exercise companions to encourage you or challenge you? You don’t have to work around anybody else’s schedule.
And sports don’t have to be restricted to what’s physically possible. Want to play a match of Quiddich? Fly by strapping a pair of bird’s wings onto your arms? Go dolphin-riding instead of horseback riding? Go for it.
Ooooh . . . I just thought of a perfectly mundane but absolutely fabulous one: swim laps. Alone. Without any other idiots in the pool. In unchlorinated water. Whatever temperature you prefer. Oooooh . . . such luxury!!!
But, that assumes the computer running the holodeck is better than a human historian or SF writer at calculating and extrapolating the probable effects of a point-of-divergence.
Then again, if it weren’t actually better, how would you know?
I guess it depends on whether you’re primarily interested in the holosim as a recreational or intellectual tool.
They already used the holodeck (or at least the alien equivalent of a holodeck) for that purpose in ST:TNG. c.f the first half of the 4th-season episode “Future Imperfect.”.
Right you are, dear Watson! I would be the world’s greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, reenacting the classic scene from Sign of the Four in which he nails Angelina Joile! The game is afoot!
No, wait…wow, that went in a totally different direction than I intended.
“Step out of the holodeck?”