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It has been some 25 years since the release of The Matrix. A film that had raised tantalising questions about our understanding of reality. Fate of mankind rested on effecting change in the real world as opposed to an imaginary one. A close parallel to the Matrix exists in the form of the Metaverse. The difference being that the latter was created voluntarily and for a more benign and mercantile purpose – that of popular entertainment.
Integration of machines in nearly all spheres of life continues unabated. Hollywood screenwriters have had to wage protests against the use of A.I. in the very city that is supposed to be a cradle for human creativity and passion. ChatGPT is substituting for the exercise of critical faculties and people are finding it increasingly difficult to tell apart truths from untruths, to make life decisions, or to vote in their enlightened self-interest. Virtual platforms with a dopamine-centric design (aliases, character limits, short form content) are changing the nature of public discourse into mutual hauling of fanciful assertions and insults between anonymous individuals not well acquainted with the subject matter. Virtual girlfriends as SaaS are courting customers who are in need of human interaction more than an affectation of human interaction.
Do these inventions advance human welfare such as reverse large scale environmental degradation, reconcile differences between groups of people, uphold the underlying architecture for the rule of law? Suggesting that a virtual world will do even as the real world disintegrates, or suggesting nonchalantly that humans will “live on” in the form of robot consciousness to the exclusion of human consciousness, represent the height of abstraction and irresponsibility.