“So given we’re clearly on a trajectory to have games that are indistinguishable from reality and those games could be played on a set top box or on a PC or whatever and there would be billions of such computers or set top boxes, it would seem to follow the odds we’re in base reality is one in billions,” Elon Musk
I believe that one day we will live in a world where physical reality and virtual reality fuse together and create a universe beyond the one we know of today.
In 2018, advances in CGI (computer generated imagery) mean we are finding it extremely difficult to tell the difference between what is real and what is not. The technology used to contain these creations is at a tipping point with unbounded thinking developing scenarios and simulations that were once fictional ideas. One company that I am following, and very excited by, is Improbable, they have created something called Spatial OS which is a new type of distributed operating system that enables developers to build large simulated worlds. What interests me the most about Spatial OS is that these virtual worlds are persistent and evolve linearly whether you’re in the world or not.
I am currently reading Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One which tells the story about Earth in 2045. The planet has been devastated by an energy crisis, climate change and war. The protagonist is Wade Watts who, along with millions of others, has access to the OASIS, a globally connected virtual universe beyond their own physical reality. He uses a virtual reality visor and a pair of haptic feedback gloves to be fully immersed in to this multi-sensory universe.
Another book which contributed to my thinking on this topic is Snow Crash (1992). This is a story about the Metaverse, a cyberspace for avatars and home to a cyberdrug called Snow Crash which is not only a virus in the virtual world but once taken it infects the physical person behind the avatar. The author of this book is Neal Stephenson who, interestingly, was hired by Magic Leap back in 2014 as Chief Futurist. This leads nicely on to another company I am extremely excited about, Magic Leap a startup in Florida who, according to TechCrunch, received a $502 million round of investment led by Temasek with participation from Alibaba Group and others. Magic Leap is a Mixed reality (MR) head worn device that has been “built for creators who want to change how we see the world”. The Magic leap technology is called digital lightfield and you can read more about their product and vision here.
Today in 2018 we still need to wear a device to gain access to this enhanced capability of seeing in virtual reality but with the imminent emergence of 5G and the evolution of web based VR, this could soon change and we could all have access to a virtual world directly through the device we have in our pockets — the smartphone.
Beyond today this enhanced capability to see in both physical reality and virtual reality could potentially come in the form of a pill or biological add-on. However, this starts to edge into AI (artificial intelligence) territory and I’m reminded by Elon Musk’s vision to merge, symbiotically, the biological brain with an AI layer to increase our input and output capabilities.
Will we one day be living in a simulation or are we, in fact, living in one now? Will we ever know? One thing I do believe is that the internet will change, and the way we engage with the internet will change with it. I am personally very excited for what the future holds.
If you enjoyed reading this post, please clap or even comment — I’d love to hear your views.
