WHAT WILL THE BLURRING OF ACTUAL REALITY / VIRTUAL REALITY LOOK LIKE IN THE FUTURE?

There are many directions in which to take this speculative question, and many fine movies have been made on the topic. Some of my favorites are listed below.

GENETICS:

--"Gattaca"
--"Brave New World"

CHEMICALLY / TECHNOLOGICALLY ENHANCED HUMANS:

--"Unlimited"(drugs)
--"Star Trek" (cyborgs)
--"The Terminator"(cyborgs)

ROBOTS / A.I.:

--"A.I." (in which I completely forgot the little boy was A.I. also, not just the teddy bear)
--"Blade Runner" (emotions were the "test" to see if human or replicant)
--"Her" (human/robot "love story")
--"Space Odyssey 2001"
--"Chappie"
--"Ex Machina" (human/robot "love story")

VIRTUAL REALITY:

--"Avatar"
--"Surrogates" (a greatly under-seen and underrated movie!)
--"Wall-E" (Yes! All media is virtual and the humans live through their screens to the point that their bodies atrophe)

TIME / TIME TRAVEL:

--"In Time"
--"Minority Report"
--"Project Almanac"

CONSCIOUSNESS:

--"Waking Life"
--"Inception"
--"The Matrix"

What do I forecast/foresee for the future?

I read once that in the future, we will not even notice whether we are in actual reality or virtual reality, and people in the future will look back at us and think we were "quaint" for making such a big distinction. Occulus Rift is promising to change everything, but Google glasses are already perceived as being for "a-holes"!

I PREDICT that discreet wearable tech (e.g., attached to our wrists) will be a big part of the future, simply because it will be so much more convenient than carrying a phone around.

I PREDICT that more and more mundane tasks, livelihoods and education will migrate to technology.

I PREDICT that we will treat ourselves more and more as robots and things. Already bio-tech is doing this with the beginning-of-life technologies, designer babies, etc. People are radically enhancing their bodies and peformance through drugs, superfoods and surgery. There is little thought given to bio-ethics. I recently had a conversation with a pediatrician friend of mine who has noticed a great "outsourcing of parenthood." Parents hire "experts" to teach their children good behavior, tutor them in school, coach their sports, plan their career paths. That feels somehow automated and mechnical to me. (Incidentally, she said these parents then feel no joy when their child succeeds, because these areas of achievement are not due to their own interaction with their kids.)

I PREDICT there will be rebel groups who will eschew technology and head to the hills and adopt Amish-esque ways of life. New groups, ones that may not even be that concerned about ecology, but who are concerned about "human ecology" and QUALITY OF LIFE.

I PREDICT that new forms of hedonism will come from technology (as in the movie "Strange Days"). Just as legal recreational marijuana is sweeping the country, the promise of fulfillment of the deep, infinite yearnings of the human spirit will be offered by technology (much like internet porn, altered states of consciousness, etc.)

The latest issue of WIRED

I PREDICT that most people's behavior will NOT change with regard to technology. Adults and children will continue using technology in isolating, distracting, willy-nilly ways with very little intentionality. Addictive/obsessive use of media tech will continue with all its accompanying malaises of spirit UNLESS some gurus come along to break the spell and help people use media in better, more optimal ways. Although I sound pessimistic about the future of media and tech, I think that, like much of history, IT DEPENDS. History takes strange, unexpected turns.

BODIES ARE NOT OPTIONAL. And we shouldn't treat them as such. A human being is an integration of "parts" we can see and parts we can't: thoughts, emotions, etc. The trick is to KEEP them integrated and not essentially leave our bodies behind by always living virtually and remotely through media/communications technology.

I have great respect for the amazing things technology can do for us. But I am a huge skeptic when it comes to those who believe computers will be smarter than humans (in all aspects of life), and become "increasingly" human (programmed to learn from their mistakes, "feel," interpret sophisticated emotions, jokes, wordplay, etc.). Computers are designed in our image, according to our brains to perform specific tasks in exponentially enhanced ways, and they're great at things like memory and math problems, algorithms and speed of calculation. But they will never "be" human and we will never "be" anything BUT human (sorry, transhumanists). Human beings are more than brains in vats.

But computers/robots can be notoriously inefficient at the simplest, everyday human tasks:

It's no surprise that something as mathematical as chess can be a computer's forte. I think the real question is: How are we already agreeing to use technology in our lives together? When cellphones first came out, we would hurriedly silence them when they interrupted a conversation. Now it is expected that we will continuously be interrupting real-time, real-space interactions with each other to text, Google, answer calls, check weather and sports. People are continually pinging and dinging and beeping, even in traditionally silent places like church. The real question is: Do we think this is a good thing? Do we care? Will we have that conversation with each other about the optimal way to use technology?