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religion games get a boost from joblessness?
genkaku
Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
As technology renders jobs obsolete, what will keep us busy? Sapiens author Yuval Noah Harari examines ‘the useless class’ and a new quest for purpose.... For thousands of years, billions of people have found meaning in playing virtual reality games. In the past, we have called these virtual reality games “religions”.
Food for thought from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/08/virtual-reality-religion-robots-sapiens-book?CMP=fb_gu
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Comments
Interesting. I find it odd that people without jobs would be so lost for something to do that they'd immerse themselves in fake worlds. But, people do it already of course, as the author points out at the end. That is largely what our lives are. Made up rules, made up social obligations all in an attempt to give meaning to life.
From the article:
Economically redundant people might spend increasing amounts of time within 3D virtual reality worlds, which would provide them with far more excitement and emotional engagement than the “real world” outside.
I can't imagine anything being more exciting or emotional than interacting with the world around me. I never, ever run out of things to do. I never get bored. If someone wanted to provide me and my husband universal income, we would never tire of all the things we enjoy doing which mostly amount to walks and spending time in nature. It's a bit crazy to me that people are so intensely involved in work that they think there is nothing else. And then those same people, when they retire, are the ones that find themselves with cancer a year later and die shortly after.
I realize the article had a main point and they made it. But what is wrong with not having something to busy ourselves with all the time? The author claims we need purposeful activities. But what determine that that is? I find more purpose sitting in the sun with a book than I ever did working a job. We have the freedom to determine what purposeful means. Right now we are too tied up in thinking it means good benefits and a paycheck. But really, if you bring yourself even to the level of living in a meditation cave, you are STILL filling your time with something that is a construct, an idea. The question of "what is the point of life" drives us all completely crazy, I think. Simply because we have the ability to ask the question. I think in asking it we probably miss whatever the point of living is.
I'm not so sure if religion is interchangeable with virtual 3D worlds, they seem focussed on different things. Living in a body gives you certain imperatives - food, sex, social life - and religion is an attempt to add a higher dimension to that layer of meaning. 3D game worlds on the other hand are more a way to add adventure and excitement to this life we have now, in a way to do risk-free what would otherwise be far too dangerous.
Given a universal income, I can see many opting for excitement and adventure, while some more mature people might tend towards religion. Some might mix the two, although perhaps not Buddhists. Will we ever see a virtual 3D world based on religious principles? I think given a universal income many projects would happen which are not economically feasible now.
There is a good book with a great title called, "Don't Just Do Something: Sit there"
I heard an interview with the author just the other day and he was asked the question, "What educational direction should our children take in order to prepare for a world in which they are useless and most skills are obsolete?" The author didn't have an answer but I immediately thought 'therapist' or anything in psychology. I suspect the field is about to explode, especially if the author's vision is realized.