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Simulated Reality Question

JustAlex1997

JustAlex1997

Autumn the Squirrel
Humanity has officially invented a perfect simulation of reality. The option is given to anyone interested in uploading their consciousness, and - with limitations - they're given influence over their lives. They can create a family that loves them, but they can also do things which causes that love to be lost. Regardless of what they choose, it's all a simulation. Nothing holds any real value as it wasn't earned, has no meaningful history behind it, and so on. They may have a family that loves them, but that family are total strangers to them.

So, do you choose to enter this virtual reality to gain a degree of control over your life? Or do you choose to remain in the real world so that the experiences you do have matter more to you?
 
TyraWadman

TyraWadman

The Silent Observer
I prefer reality. I want to see what I want to see, whereas someone else would probably be controlling my environment and influencing my decisions every step of the way. No thanks.

I am not afraid to make mistakes or experience pain and discomfort if it means experiencing true happiness at the same time.

I also don't think I could live with the 'virtual' taste of food.

Edit: What would you pick?
 
JustAlex1997

JustAlex1997

Autumn the Squirrel
TyraWadman said:
I prefer reality. I want to see what I want to see, whereas someone else would probably be controlling my environment and influencing my decisions every step of the way. No thanks.

I am not afraid to make mistakes or experience pain and discomfort if it means experiencing true happiness at the same time.

I also don't think I could live with the 'virtual' taste of food.

Edit: What would you pick?
Click to expand...
I should note that this reality wouldn't allow you to influence anyone you didn't create. To allow that would cause way too many problems.
 
Azeleon

Azeleon

gay lizard gang
I'd prefer real life tbh.
I mean, being uploaded into a simulated world, surely whatever owns this simulated world can see every single thing I do or think.
If the ability to "create people" exists there, what would stop someone from creating an army of cultist soldiers to worship them and take over the entire world?

Now if it were some kind of "game" or "application" that you could freely enter and exit, I'd totally check it out for fun.
 
hara-surya

hara-surya

Deviated Prevert
I have a setting where having your mind copied into a computer is a destructive process that's typically used by the dying to continue living, though some otherwise able-bodied people have volunteered knowing it might simply be a fancy and expensive suicide. In that setting computers capable of running the mind emulation are called a brainbox and are relatively compact (small desktop computer-sized) and can be carried and powered by battery if need be.

In that setting ghosts sometimes literally live inside of online video games in order to get a sense of reality. Other have a constructed reality like the OP is talking about, though the bots they're surrounded by are closer to (unbelievably complex by today's standards) chatbots than fully sapient AIs. Still others ride biological androids with the cerebrum replaced by electronics that allow the brainbox to communicate with the rest of the body. In the setting bioroids are required to appear non-human and most look like animal-people (though Furry is a racial slur to them).
 
dragon-in-sight

dragon-in-sight

mane diva
JustAlex1997 said:
Humanity has officially invented a perfect simulation of reality. The option is given to anyone interested in uploading their consciousness, and - with limitations - they're given influence over their lives. They can create a family that loves them, but they can also do things which causes that love to be lost. Regardless of what they choose, it's all a simulation. Nothing holds any real value as it wasn't earned, has no meaningful history behind it, and so on. They may have a family that loves them, but that family are total strangers to them.

So, do you choose to enter this virtual reality to gain a degree of control over your life? Or do you choose to remain in the real world so that the experiences you do have matter more to you?
Click to expand...

I choose reality. We always have some controll over the course of our lives. It's all just a question of will and effort. I rather fight for something real but to live in an illusion.
 
Mambi

Mambi

Fun loving kitty cat
JustAlex1997 said:
Humanity has officially invented a perfect simulation of reality. The option is given to anyone interested in uploading their consciousness, and - with limitations - they're given influence over their lives. They can create a family that loves them, but they can also do things which causes that love to be lost. Regardless of what they choose, it's all a simulation. Nothing holds any real value as it wasn't earned, has no meaningful history behind it, and so on. They may have a family that loves them, but that family are total strangers to them.

So, do you choose to enter this virtual reality to gain a degree of control over your life? Or do you choose to remain in the real world so that the experiences you do have matter more to you?
Click to expand...

I would never live there, but I would visit. Let me put it this way...if you take drugs like Ecstasy you will be happy (drugs are damaging obviously and that's another mater, but for now pretend it's safe). It won't matter what you're doing or what's happening, you will be blissfully happy. But that feeling would have no basis to it, nothing to reflect on, nothing tangible to show for it, no sense of accomplishment, and no direct connection or reason for the happiness. But you will be happy.

So when you think back to the experience, you will remember feeling great and remember being joyfully happy, but you won't be able to say WHY really. If you tried to replicate any of the experience it would fall flat because there was nothing ever there to begin with for your mind to lock onto as to WHY you're happy. All you can do to replicate the empty experience to feel the same way is to literally do the drug again and have another empty experience, rinse and repeat.

THAT'S how I see virtual reality. Sure it can create anything I wish, and sure I'd enjoy it immensely at the time. But it would always ring hollow...meaningless...shallow...too easy. And thus no fun, no challenge, no honour. No point...
 
Shane the chocco doggo

Shane the chocco doggo

Overly imaginative and lazy
I can thoroughly say the only reason im actually bothered with life is my mum so load me into a simulation anytime . At least it would be better than this
 
Firuthi Dragovic

Firuthi Dragovic

Gamer Dragon, former speedrunner
Visitation at most, no brain uploading for me. I'd rather know the SOURCE of my joys in life and I'd rather earn contentment than be given the chance at bliss... but the chance for creating something that people in the virtual world can enjoy is the reason I allow for visitation.
 
Vesper The Coyusky

Vesper The Coyusky

Well-Known Member
For me I'm in favor of reality than virtual. Experiencing reality is trial and error. I prefer that. Virtual is nice to get away for a bit if I ever had a troubled past , but not like permanent. I want to learn from experiences growing up and how that can pass on to the generations around me and being able to adjust to the world around me and how we do and learn from life experiences from the past, now, and beyond.
 
Jackpot Raccuki

Jackpot Raccuki

Although half canine, is not a wolf.
Technically depends, but assuming I can create or rather 'recreate' my own reality and characters into it, I'd of already gained my own meaning and would love it.
Sure, reality is cool and all, but I want to watch a pirate summon and yeet a magical anchor through a kraken as a wizard casts a meteor storm on it and a knight slicing along it's body to finish it off.

If it was kind of like a thing where you could connect to other people like a server and invite them to 'your world' I don't think I'd hesitate at all and instinctively say yes. (Y'know like second life, I guess? idk never played it.)
But I doubt such thing is the case here.

Either way I'm usually lost in my own thoughts IRL, and I'm prob slightly misunderstanding, but based on my conscious, dreams and just general thinking I'd cope decently well.
 
FooFoo4230

FooFoo4230

Well-Known Member
I 100% agree with the above comment.

If it’s like an application which I can have a free trial version of it, with fewer features then, yes, please sign me up for that! I wouldn’t even care that it would have a limit of 10 characters at a time and a size limit, it would be fun to have a fake world that I could mess around with! I’d probably design some kind of spaceship builder so I could show it off to my friends.

However, if it’s basically just a large open-world game, created by others, no thanks. I’d prefer to have each thing be its own separate instance, and to be able to enter and exit whenever I want. Seeing things and people that others create might be fun, but I’d prefer each thing to be independent.
 
Mambi

Mambi

Fun loving kitty cat
My issue also is a simple one people forget...if you're in a simulated reality, that means that reality itself can be hacked externally. If that happens, your world now becomes the playtoy of an anonymous internet asshole.
 
Kuuro

Kuuro

Hey man, look at me rocking out!
Is this a permanent upload? Jumping in for occasional entertainment is sensible but, for me, a replacement for reality isn't.

I feel the only way to be truly happy is acceptance. Accepting each moment, each person, each flaw for what they are, and letting them pass. If you don't feel this way, you may desire to be put into a life where you have more control. But alas, if you're in unsatisfied with your influence on this life, and you travel into world to mitigate that problem, what's to stop you from becoming unsatisfied with the limitations of that world? People try to fill their sadness with material things, or power, but that simply doesn't work. It's just a momentary rush, like a drug, and you'll always want more. Man is greedy. Just look at the depression rate of people who win the lottery -- they're smacked in the face with the realization that, at the end of the day, even with all the money (ie control) in the world they don't feel better. If you're satisfied with reality there's no need for a change in the rules, and if you're not, changing the rules isn't going to solve the problem. You need to get to the root, your perspective. "Dreams of greener grass will drive you mad," as they say.
 
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