[BrandonM]

> I mean, what would you prefer?

I would not choose to be the star. Observing substance (ab)use and suicide among celebrities and the affluent, it seems clear that a “starring role” in life is not an automatic ticket to happiness or fulfillment.

For me at least, a lot of the meaning in life comes from dealing with cold hard reality. Updating my strengths and my belief systems to be more aligned with a disinterested external world. Connecting with, learning from, and sharing with other humans what it all means and what it’s like to be part of this whole thing, to get a more complete understanding of the human experience.

Consider—if we were one unified consciousness with total understanding existing in absolute bliss, what would there be to do, to discuss? We might produce a limited world like our own to make existence more meaningful.

[elcritch]

StarTrek TNG’s “Q” had that problem. They’d effectively ascended but were bored out of their minds. Well rather one of them was. It was one of my favorite plot elements.

Even in a virtual reality (perhaps especially in VR?) I’d fear that a single instantly connected human society would stagnate pretty quickly.

At least sub-light speed travel and communications limit would allow future human colonies to grow independently rather than our increasingly homogeneous worldwide consumer culture.

[hungryforcodes]

No it would probably be a lot more like TikTok or other social media. Addictive at first and then most likely economically driven as well.

Imagine being able to deliver REAL experiences as ads:

"TRY our new toothpaste. Really!"

So like everything in technology we will just kind of evolve into it without even noticing until it's too late like Facebook or some such.