Why Finding Alien Life Would Be the Most Exciting (and Scariest) Discovery Ever

[Freelancer]

6. We're up against a filter right now -- virtual reality competing with actual experiences

No offense Elon -- loved the car in space -- too cool to the nth power -- but computer graphics have advanced to the point where it's far easier to create whole worlds in a Hollywood basement than to actually take steps toward going to any. We've seen 3 'Death Stars' (if you count the planet-thingy) and innumerable aliens on our Imax screens. Launching ourselves into the void in tin cans to reach planets we already know to be pretty nothing places seems... I dunno... anticlimactic somehow. I don't like that. I want space to be the big deal that it truly is.

When an actual neural interface allows full sensual immersion in synthetic environments, I'm afraid the real world in technologically advanced countries will stop advancing and come to resemble a teenager's room. For that reason, IMO, the creation of a computer-neural interface is a filter event.

Humanity may use marriage to computers to reach farther, or to stop reaching altogether. In addition, countries that have citizens jacked-in to virtual reality may also become vulnerable to being over-run by groups who are one step out of the iron age. Progress could end that way too. Long-short, this may be a rocky century. But-hey, all of our avatars will be amazing.