Life in a virtual reality
02/09/16 05:08
Friends, please note that although the following stories are about people that I know, they aren’t exactly stories that are mine to tell. As a result, I have changed the names. If you think you know to whom I’m referring in the story, you may be right or you may be wrong. Making assumptions is likely to be misleading.
Max spends his days in a second-floor office facing two large computer screens. On the screens he can display market trends and track the performance of stocks and bonds. He has some elaborate programs that tracks dividends and capital gains and predict trends. His job is to manage the investments of other people. They trust him with their retirement funds and other funds and he uses those funds to by and sell shares on their behalf. He tracks their investments and gives them advice on when to buy or sell. He understands the difference between realized and unrealized gains. He is a professional. He is well trained and well respected in his work. People trust him with enormous amounts of money. Of course Max doesn’t really manage money. He rarely handles currency. His work is done in a virtual reality of electronic transfers and numbers displayed on computer screens. The story upon which his life is based is capitalism. Money invested over time grows. As long as you have time, growth continues. Like all good stories, it is a myth. It only exists because people believe it exists. In 2008, when the Federal Reserve was keeping banks from failing, over a trillion dollars were created by changing entries in computers. Nothing was exchanged to get those dollars. They exist and are a part of our economy because we believe in our economy. When the myth of growth stops working, people intervene to change the story. Max has a good life and he feels he offers a genuine service to people. He cares about his clients.
Javier rises early in the morning and spends his days working in the fruit orchards. He knows exactly when to pick the ripe fruit. He knows how to graft branches onto trees. He knows how to properly trim trees. He knows about tree diseases and pests that limit the production of fruit. He lives in a 1981 mobile home that has rotting wood in the floor of the bathroom and holes in the exterior siding. The windows leak when the wind blows, which it does a lot. Javier doesn’t own the mobile home. It belongs to his boss. So does the pickup he drives. So do most of the tools he uses in the orchard. Of course Javier doesn’t really give the boss more time. His time isn’t really worth a different amount than the time of the land owner. His work is done in a virtual reality based on a story that people who hold title to the land somehow own it while those who spend their lives working the land are only migrants who come and go. Javier’s family has been working this orchard for six generations. The owner of the orchard inherited it from his father who bought it from another landowner. The story upon which his life is based is private property. Like all good stories it is based on a myth. Land can’t really be owned. It is possessed temporarily. All people die and land titles are meaningless in the grave. Javier has a good life and he knows he is honest and earns every dollar in his small paycheck.
Matthew is a dedicated teacher, but his real passion is research. The research projects that intrigue him most are huge collaborative projects with many different universities and individuals involved. They are enormously expensive and search for proof of theories that have been defined and refined by generations of researchers. His work doesn’t involve going to the places where actual experiments take place, but rather using computers to go through mountains of data from those experiments, looking for anomalies that might indicate the discovery of a previously undetected change in the circumstances. If a discovery is made, Matthew won’t be the only one who receives the credit. He won’t even be able to claim that the discovery is his exclusively because others will need to verify each of his discoveries. At best his name will appear with others as co-authors of a paper published in a scientific journal. That name placement will be part of his quest for tenure and job security at the university. His work is done in a virtual reality. It is based on the story that mathematics is more than a human system invented to measure and explain observations, but rather a force that is inherent in the universe. Like all good stories it is a myth. Time and distance are not constants, but rather vary with perspective. Even something that seems constant like the laws of physics and the rules of mathematics are subject to changes in interpretation and understanding. Matthew has a good life and trusts the power of his research to produce good for other people.
Whoever he has time, Daniel pulls out his phone and plays Pokemon Go, Using the phone’s GPS capability, he locates, captures, battles and trains virtual creatures who appear on the screen as if they were in the same real-world location as Daniel. Because he can play the game for short or long periods of time and because the game captures his attention he doesn’t really know how much of his time is spent on the game. It provides an alternative to his studies which, though engaging, have not yet produced a clear career path for him. In one of his worlds he is seen as unsuccessful. He can’t focus or choose one thing that will produce an income and enable his independence. In another he is hugely successful, having mastered multiple levels of the game and continues to pile success upon success. He is aware that all people live in virtual worlds - projections of human imagination driven by stories that are all myths. He is uncertain about which world is virtual and which is real. He imagines that in the future, as robots do more and more of the jobs now done by humans, an economy of virtual reality will be necessary to keep people occupied. 50 years from now will he be judged negatively for his understanding of virtual reality or will he be seen as a pioneer who opened new realities for human activity? Daniel is a good person. It remains to be seen whether or not he will have a good life.
Max spends his days in a second-floor office facing two large computer screens. On the screens he can display market trends and track the performance of stocks and bonds. He has some elaborate programs that tracks dividends and capital gains and predict trends. His job is to manage the investments of other people. They trust him with their retirement funds and other funds and he uses those funds to by and sell shares on their behalf. He tracks their investments and gives them advice on when to buy or sell. He understands the difference between realized and unrealized gains. He is a professional. He is well trained and well respected in his work. People trust him with enormous amounts of money. Of course Max doesn’t really manage money. He rarely handles currency. His work is done in a virtual reality of electronic transfers and numbers displayed on computer screens. The story upon which his life is based is capitalism. Money invested over time grows. As long as you have time, growth continues. Like all good stories, it is a myth. It only exists because people believe it exists. In 2008, when the Federal Reserve was keeping banks from failing, over a trillion dollars were created by changing entries in computers. Nothing was exchanged to get those dollars. They exist and are a part of our economy because we believe in our economy. When the myth of growth stops working, people intervene to change the story. Max has a good life and he feels he offers a genuine service to people. He cares about his clients.
Javier rises early in the morning and spends his days working in the fruit orchards. He knows exactly when to pick the ripe fruit. He knows how to graft branches onto trees. He knows how to properly trim trees. He knows about tree diseases and pests that limit the production of fruit. He lives in a 1981 mobile home that has rotting wood in the floor of the bathroom and holes in the exterior siding. The windows leak when the wind blows, which it does a lot. Javier doesn’t own the mobile home. It belongs to his boss. So does the pickup he drives. So do most of the tools he uses in the orchard. Of course Javier doesn’t really give the boss more time. His time isn’t really worth a different amount than the time of the land owner. His work is done in a virtual reality based on a story that people who hold title to the land somehow own it while those who spend their lives working the land are only migrants who come and go. Javier’s family has been working this orchard for six generations. The owner of the orchard inherited it from his father who bought it from another landowner. The story upon which his life is based is private property. Like all good stories it is based on a myth. Land can’t really be owned. It is possessed temporarily. All people die and land titles are meaningless in the grave. Javier has a good life and he knows he is honest and earns every dollar in his small paycheck.
Matthew is a dedicated teacher, but his real passion is research. The research projects that intrigue him most are huge collaborative projects with many different universities and individuals involved. They are enormously expensive and search for proof of theories that have been defined and refined by generations of researchers. His work doesn’t involve going to the places where actual experiments take place, but rather using computers to go through mountains of data from those experiments, looking for anomalies that might indicate the discovery of a previously undetected change in the circumstances. If a discovery is made, Matthew won’t be the only one who receives the credit. He won’t even be able to claim that the discovery is his exclusively because others will need to verify each of his discoveries. At best his name will appear with others as co-authors of a paper published in a scientific journal. That name placement will be part of his quest for tenure and job security at the university. His work is done in a virtual reality. It is based on the story that mathematics is more than a human system invented to measure and explain observations, but rather a force that is inherent in the universe. Like all good stories it is a myth. Time and distance are not constants, but rather vary with perspective. Even something that seems constant like the laws of physics and the rules of mathematics are subject to changes in interpretation and understanding. Matthew has a good life and trusts the power of his research to produce good for other people.
Whoever he has time, Daniel pulls out his phone and plays Pokemon Go, Using the phone’s GPS capability, he locates, captures, battles and trains virtual creatures who appear on the screen as if they were in the same real-world location as Daniel. Because he can play the game for short or long periods of time and because the game captures his attention he doesn’t really know how much of his time is spent on the game. It provides an alternative to his studies which, though engaging, have not yet produced a clear career path for him. In one of his worlds he is seen as unsuccessful. He can’t focus or choose one thing that will produce an income and enable his independence. In another he is hugely successful, having mastered multiple levels of the game and continues to pile success upon success. He is aware that all people live in virtual worlds - projections of human imagination driven by stories that are all myths. He is uncertain about which world is virtual and which is real. He imagines that in the future, as robots do more and more of the jobs now done by humans, an economy of virtual reality will be necessary to keep people occupied. 50 years from now will he be judged negatively for his understanding of virtual reality or will he be seen as a pioneer who opened new realities for human activity? Daniel is a good person. It remains to be seen whether or not he will have a good life.