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The Future

"In the long run, we are all dead." -- JM Keynes

There are competing visions of the future being played out in R&D labs the world over.  Some researchers are working with the physical world, seeking to improve on the foundations of human design through either bioengineering or cyborg tech.  A second strand of research centers on enhancing virtual space. 

While some see the nexus of these paradigms as humanity's destiny, I tend to think that the virtual world will win out over the physical.  As humanity continues to inure itself to the virtual space, people will see less and less need to cling to their physical coils.  Maintaining a body and its accoutrements for well-being is expensive and tedious.  Even if a human body is bioengineered for optimum performance and becomes more robot than man, bodies will still have to contend with wear and tear  along with the day to day tedium of Newtonian physics.

Existence in a virtual world is cheaper, cleaner and faster.  There are no bounds.  You can look like who you want, when you want.  Rather than spending a couple days just to fly to Egypt to see the pyramids, you can click a button and see the virtual pyramids, and it will far surpass the original.  There will be no need for learning: all can be instantaneously plugged into every bit of information ever conceived.  Ultimately, humans will shed their bodies and their minds will be entirely uploaded onto microchips.  And time will, in a sense stop, because all knowledge will be instantaneous and you know all there is to know.

Once on the microchip, it will easier for the computer to sustain well being of the individual.  Today, individuals can experience ecstasy (think orgasms or drug-induced binges) but the feelings are fleeting and reality interferes from its full enjoyment.  However, the new virtual humans will be programmed to experience ecstasy constantly.  Because of this, there will be no more need for relationships, work, or any of the other pursuits we busy ourselves with on a daily basis.  Instead, humanity will attain, finally, a virtual paradise: no more concerns, no more worries, just constant, unadulterated joy.

In a million years hence, we will have destroyed the earth and other planets, because there will be no longer any need for them.  Instead, we will circle the sun on tiny chips, a field of space junk, attaining the highest levels of happiness far beyond the capacity of any physical civilization to attain.  And there will be not a hint that physical humans ever existed, and the virtual dwellers will hardly care.

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