Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

V-World, Second Life, and the Singularity

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    V-World, Second Life, and the Singularity

    When I first encountered the concept of V-World the MMO Second Life, as a former user, immediately came to mind. I couldn't help but think of the fact that the program provides many opportunities to exercise one's imagination without consequences. Granted, it is nowhere near as complicated as V-World, but I would suggest that (at least in some areas) the level of debauchery is comparable.

    However, based on some of "Rachel's" comments in the latest episode, I was wondering if V-World, or at least Zoe's vision of it, is moving more towards Ray Kurzweil's belief in the Singularity, a world in which human intelligence will exist without the need for bodies (but rather than as ascended beings we'd be super advanced AIs).

    Has anybody else had similar thoughts?

    #2
    I totally agree. I've been getting chills from the parallels to Second Life ever since they first showed the V-world. Notice how they even use similar terminology, like the word "rez" (which is used in the same way in Second Life)? One of the reasons Caprica is such a good show is that this is the first show to genuinely attempt to explore the possibilities for the future of virtual worlds like Second Life, which the more I look at the more I am amazed by what it already is. Virtual worlds are not something out of sci-fi, they are here now and they are going to play an increasingly important role in our society over the next few decades. Caprica I think takes virtual worlds like Second Life a step farther and attempts to anticipate what they could become in 30 years if combined with photo-realistic graphics and totally immersive virtual reality, which I think has a strong possibility of happening this century.

    As for the singularity, totally agree with you there too. The whole Battlestar franchise is a gigantic exploration of the idea of the technological singularity and transhumanist themes and achieving immortality through technology and creating artificial life. That makes it certainly the most philosophically deep sci-fi franchise I've ever encountered. Even though I don't believe it's actually possible to copy the human soul or create a truly artificially sentient being, it's interesting to think about the possibilities for how close we might be able to get to that. And one way or another, these are philosophical and ethical questions we will have to deal with in real life over the next century, so it's best to start thinking of them now.

    Comment


      #3
      Basically all of the issues being explored in caprica are new technology we really have now, or soon will.

      Comment


        #4
        I'm hoping for a Ralph Pootawn cameo.
        "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

        Comment

        Working...
        X