I had a silly idea today, and I was curious to see how other people would answer to it. Without going into too much detail, I was thinking about MMORPGs and about how many of them are a significant, but virtual, part of daily life.
Well, suppose you were approached by a company making you this offer: exchanging your current house for a beautiful, luxurious one that only exists as a Virtual Reality scenario in a simulation like Second Life on steroids. You’d get a VR whole body suit, which would feed you the simulated stimuli through some magic. Using your VR suit you’d be able to experience your virtual house, which would be, well, anything you wanted really, anything you could design, like Second Life. Graphics could be absolutely realistic, not cartoony a la World of Warcraft - unless you wanted to. You would be able to have guests (avatars of friends of yours), and visit other people’s houses, and so on.
While in the simulation, your body would be taken care of, with drip feeds and whatnot, and your muscles would be electrically stimulated to keep in shape, all by some magic. In short, no physical problems.
However, the price for this is that the company would get your property, if you own one. If you don’t, you’d have to pay them rent, and it would be much lower than what you pay now. And it would only be your home, not your workplace or your shopping centre. To go to work, you’d have to log out, get out of the building where your VR suit is kept, and drive there.
Well, you’re getting two houses for the price of one - A virtual one which looks after your mind and a real one which looks after your body (You’d have to be physically ‘housed’ somewhere, even if it’s in a wharehouse with two thousand other people)
It’s a nice idea.
On the other hand. No privacy - Where’s the one place you would want privacy - your own house. Could they GUARANTEE that only you knows what goes on in your ‘house’?
Let’s suppose that your VR suit is stored in a cubicle in a warehouse, with a hammock or something, and a little storage for spare clothes and some long-life food. In case electricity goes out, you’d have a place to stay, but it would be very basic. Nothing uncomfortable, but very spartan.
Let’s suppose they can guarantee that, and that their profit is good enough that they don’t need to sell personal data about you. Your privacy is guaranteed.
Virtually, of course!
[stifling urge to make virtual ladle joke] Would be a bit of a problem if you wanted to have kids, but otherwise, as safe as masturbation, right? [/sutmvlj]
While I like my little house here in the countryside, I might go for it, depending on who else I knew that was taking the deal. If the majority of my friends were still meat-side, I don’t think I’d chance losing my house in exchange for the same sort of social structure you’re likely to see amongst the population that would be taking this deal.
This applies to this question and the quoted question. Presumably the act would be virtual and the associated stimulation would be administered directly to the brain by the suit, thus no cleaning required. (though the suit would probably need to be equipped to clean anyway since the human body does tend to get funky very quickly
Yeah, I knida assumed that’d be part and parcel of the deal. I mean, hell, it feeds you and keeps you in shape. Certainly scraping some of the ick off regularly wouldn’t be that big a deal.
Hm. How are guests going to work in this scenario? One of the best things (for me) about buying a house was finally having the room to have people over for dinner or a weekend visit. If we can’t do that, I’d rather keep my place.
The nanobots constantly graze on your skin, cleaning you and recycling the organic matter into the organic garden on the roof. Anytime you want to get out of the suit, you’re as fresh as a daisy and in tip top shape. But you never do want to get out do you? No, you never do. No, you don’t.
Only you know what happens inside your virtual home.