Continuing from yesterday … there are so many ways that things can go wrong if we all eventually move to a virtual world.
I am defining a “virtual world” as one in which everything we see (and, most likely, hear) is filtered through some electronic intermediary. This would be the case, for example, if everyone gets artificial retinal implants (I give that about thirty to forty years).
One consequence of this will be that it will become possible for someone tapping into the “cloud” to know not only what you are looking at, but your eye movements — even those subtle saccades your eyes make when something catches your attention or interest. With that sort of high quality data, it won’t be too hard to figure out an awful lot about what you might be thinking.
As I said yesterday, the fact that this will be possible doesn’t mean that it will happen. As we start to approach this level of technology, there will be societal forces pushing back, for many reasons. The possibility of total information is not the same as the fact of total information. Still, it’s something to keep in mind.
More tomorrow.