Bringing the World to You vs You to the World
Science fiction used to be all about space travel. That was the pinnacle of what man’s technology of the 1950’s could imagine. It was all about taking you to the world. First by automobile, then by airplane, and finally by spaceship.
But cutting edge technology is no longer about transporting people or things. Now it’s about moving data. And the science fiction of today has changed to reflect that. It’s about bringing the world to you. Or creating an entirely new world. The new TV show Bliss from Amazon is the latest science fiction offering to explore mind-bending alternate realities.
I highly recommend Bliss. It is an engaging story with a thought-provoking theme that will haunt you days after you’ve seen it. But it also nails the future of technology and human nature in ways that made me wonder if they read my blog. Here are 3 things from the movie which resonated with me.
*** Spoilers Ahead ***
But cutting edge technology is no longer about transporting people or things. Now it’s about moving data. And the science fiction of today has changed to reflect that. It’s about bringing the world to you. Or creating an entirely new world. The new TV show Bliss from Amazon is the latest science fiction offering to explore mind-bending alternate realities.
I highly recommend Bliss. It is an engaging story with a thought-provoking theme that will haunt you days after you’ve seen it. But it also nails the future of technology and human nature in ways that made me wonder if they read my blog. Here are 3 things from the movie which resonated with me.
*** Spoilers Ahead ***
Bliss is all about a married couple, Greg and Isabel, which enter a virtual reality simulation. The husband forgets that he’s in a simulation so his wife pulls him out to show him the “real world”. When he emerges, he’s a changed man. Momentarily any way.
Telepresence Is All the Rage
When Greg comes back to the real world. One of the things that astounds him is the concept of Telepresence. It’s the popular way of traveling to other places virtually. You can walk around and visit with people without actually being there. They can see you and you can see them.
As I’ve written repeatedly. Travel comes at a high cost. In terms of dollars but especially in terms of time. Even if you had the dollars to construct a space ship that could go to Mars, you would pay a high price in terms of time. Do you really want to devote 10 years of your life to a single trip? Or on a smaller scale, you could spend a week to visit the California coast but the opportunity cost means that you can’t also visit Paris. And even if you could afford a private jet, you lose all those hours consumed by air travel.
It hasn’t taken mankind very long to figure out that it’s much more economical to bring the world to you versus you to the world. Photography and video was only the beginning. The concept imagined in the show Bliss whereby people travel via Telepresence is the ultimate expression of bringing the world to you. It about moving data not pounds of flesh. You could visit your family in California for lunch. Visit a museum in Paris during the afternoon. And maybe finish the day with sightseeing on Mars after Dinner. The price in terms of dollars might be high, but in terms of hours it would be astoundingly cheap. And there is no commodity more precious than time. All men, rich or poor, are given 24 hours in a day.
Automation Is the Key to Global Prosperity
In the make believe future world of Bliss, people live in comfort and ease. They spend their days on creative endeavors and leave menial work to robots. One of the things that made this possible was automation.
The Chicken Littles of today say that the sky is falling due to factory automation. They predict mass global unemployment and the collapse of society. I’m not exaggerating. When in fact, the truth is almost exactly the opposite. Automation is the key to global prosperity and lifting millions out of a poverty level existence.
Automation makes everything cheaper. It has been doing so for decades. Automation will make housing, transportation, and technology more attainable for people of all income levels in the future.
Prosperity Doesn’t Bring Ease or Utopia
Here is where the movie Bliss really jumped ahead of the pack for me. When they addressed mankind’s malady of never being satisfied. A poor kid who receives a single gift on Christmas is happier than a rich kid who receives a truck load. Why? Because of context.
Greg finds out that prior to entering the computer simulation, he was very unhappy with his life. He had everything a man could want and yet had no happiness. There’s also a scene where people are philosophizing. One of the philosophers posits that they are actually living in hell. These people live in a world with no hunger or want and they posit that they are in hell?
The simulation which Isabel creates is meant to allow people to experience a world that is full of poverty and strife. Her theory is that people can’t really appreciate the good without seeing the bad. And it’s so much better if the “bad” is only a simulation.
Bliss acknowledges that mankind will never achieve Utopia. The more that mankind achieves, the more that mankind will desire. And will be left forever unsatisfied.
Telepresence Is All the Rage
When Greg comes back to the real world. One of the things that astounds him is the concept of Telepresence. It’s the popular way of traveling to other places virtually. You can walk around and visit with people without actually being there. They can see you and you can see them.
As I’ve written repeatedly. Travel comes at a high cost. In terms of dollars but especially in terms of time. Even if you had the dollars to construct a space ship that could go to Mars, you would pay a high price in terms of time. Do you really want to devote 10 years of your life to a single trip? Or on a smaller scale, you could spend a week to visit the California coast but the opportunity cost means that you can’t also visit Paris. And even if you could afford a private jet, you lose all those hours consumed by air travel.
It hasn’t taken mankind very long to figure out that it’s much more economical to bring the world to you versus you to the world. Photography and video was only the beginning. The concept imagined in the show Bliss whereby people travel via Telepresence is the ultimate expression of bringing the world to you. It about moving data not pounds of flesh. You could visit your family in California for lunch. Visit a museum in Paris during the afternoon. And maybe finish the day with sightseeing on Mars after Dinner. The price in terms of dollars might be high, but in terms of hours it would be astoundingly cheap. And there is no commodity more precious than time. All men, rich or poor, are given 24 hours in a day.
Automation Is the Key to Global Prosperity
In the make believe future world of Bliss, people live in comfort and ease. They spend their days on creative endeavors and leave menial work to robots. One of the things that made this possible was automation.
The Chicken Littles of today say that the sky is falling due to factory automation. They predict mass global unemployment and the collapse of society. I’m not exaggerating. When in fact, the truth is almost exactly the opposite. Automation is the key to global prosperity and lifting millions out of a poverty level existence.
Automation makes everything cheaper. It has been doing so for decades. Automation will make housing, transportation, and technology more attainable for people of all income levels in the future.
Prosperity Doesn’t Bring Ease or Utopia
Here is where the movie Bliss really jumped ahead of the pack for me. When they addressed mankind’s malady of never being satisfied. A poor kid who receives a single gift on Christmas is happier than a rich kid who receives a truck load. Why? Because of context.
Greg finds out that prior to entering the computer simulation, he was very unhappy with his life. He had everything a man could want and yet had no happiness. There’s also a scene where people are philosophizing. One of the philosophers posits that they are actually living in hell. These people live in a world with no hunger or want and they posit that they are in hell?
The simulation which Isabel creates is meant to allow people to experience a world that is full of poverty and strife. Her theory is that people can’t really appreciate the good without seeing the bad. And it’s so much better if the “bad” is only a simulation.
Bliss acknowledges that mankind will never achieve Utopia. The more that mankind achieves, the more that mankind will desire. And will be left forever unsatisfied.
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