Data and virtual reality.

Penny worth of thoughts upon reading a ST article today on the Japan robot revolution, and also from the speculative fictional TV series the Black Mirror I have been watching with Lnr.

Our increasing interaction with computers has now created an entire all-encompassing interactive medium, the virtual reality. And I wonder what the future has in store for us as we are travelling along this reality-virtuality continuum? Will we ride on it and improve our standard of living and quality of life, or will it crush us and make ourselves, and everything else obsolete in the society eventually? Do we need friends if we can create our own in VR, travelling to Mars together and back, do we need real sex if the VR could do better than reality? Do we need people if robots can replace us, better and more efficient? Well again, the good and the bad, like all technology advances. It's not a new topic that hasn't been brought up, but it's implications are getting increasingly intimate in our everyday life.

As the broadcaster of Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker questions, 'If technology is a drug - and it does feels like a drug - then what, precisely - are the side effects?' It also reminds me of this lengthy quote I stumble upon at the Big Bang Data exhibition earlier this year.

Data will help us remember, but will it let us forget? It will help politicians get elected, but will it help them lead? It will help companies make products addictive, but will it help us get free once we're hooked? It will help advertisers see people as statistics, but will it help us remember those statistics are people? It will help banks prevent credit card fraud, but will it help us stay out of debt? It will help credit card companies predict the impending collapses of a marriage, but will it keep our marriages from falling apart? It will help parents make kids genetically perfect, but will it help us love them regardless? It will help high-frequency trader sell stocks in nanoseconds, but will it help protect markets from feedback loops in their program? It will help meteorologist predict storms and tornadoes, but will it help us rebuild the homes of survivors? It will help biologists map the migration of fish, but will it keep us from overfishing the oceans? It will help physicists find the 'God particle' n a supercollider, but will it help us agree about God? It will help astronomers search for signs of alien life, but will it help us know if aliens are friendly or mean? It will help cardiologists monitor pacemakers with WiFi connections, but will it keep hackers from hacking our hearts? It will help virologists publish the genomes of major disease, but will it keep terrorists from developing weaponized strains? It will help soldiers kill enemies remotely with drones, but will it help us see war as more than a game? It will help urbanists develop 'smart cities' but what will become of our towns? It will help government map the consumption patterns of cities, but will it help us depend less on consuming? It will help hackers leak evidence of government surveillance, but will we treat those hackers as heroes or thieves? It will help police triangulate the location o gunshots, but will it help us address the underlying causes of violence? It will help educators make excellent standardised tests, but will it help us embrace different standards of excellence? It will help farmers engineer crops to produce bigger yield, but will it keep corporations from patenting our food? It will help search engines know how often people search for 'love', but will it help people find it? It will help singles plan a hundred firsts dates, but will it help them know when they have found the right one? It will help pet owners clone their dogs and their cats, but will it help us love the clones as much as the cloned? It will help neurologists implant chips in our brains, but will it help us turn off the chatter? It will help geneticists sequence our genome, but will it help us understand who we are? It will help us feel connected, but will it help us feel loved? It will help us uncover the facts, but will it help us be wise? It will help us live forever, but will it hep us see that life's meaning stems from the fact that it ends? It will help us keep count of everything in our lives, but will it help us understand that not everything that counts in our lives can be counted? It will help us see the world as it is, but will it help us see the world as it could be? 

On one side it seems so empowering and all knowing, but never without its woes and limitations. Guess at the end of the day, statistics, or technology takes no side,but we humans who manipulate it do. But are we capable and ready to grasp this new entitled power?