“Being virtually killed by a virtual laser in a virtual space is just as effective as the real thing, because you are as dead as you think you are.” ―Douglas Adams
We cannot live in a perfect world because no two people will ever have the exact same idea of the perfect planet. That should be clear to everyone. Yet, what's wrong with wanting a "perfect world?" I had the idea to ask this question and then I decided that it wasn't a great question to ask. The next day in my philosophy class, a perfect virtual reality was one focus of our conversation.
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So, why can't we live in a perfect world? It's because there isn't one. Why isn't there one? It's because there are over seven billion people alive today. A perfect world would consist of over seven billion individual perfect worlds.
As every individual would need an individual perfect place, there could be no actual contact between humans unless you were to leave your virtual reality to travel to someone else's, or vice versa. But how and why would you do this if your reality was already perfect? Would you even know if the people in your perfect world were real or if they were a program created for your world?
In my philosophy class, the professor asked who in the class would choose to live in a computer simulation, programmed exactly as each person liked, with every detail that we could possibly want.
Several people said no. From the start, I was not one of them.
I understand the butterfly effect. If I could go back in time today and stop horrible things that have happened, in theory, I would love to. In reality, who am I to change the course of history? Who's to say that things wouldn't turn out far worse with me, an anxious klutz, handling the controls? I would only do such a thing if I was completely certain that everything would work out better for the greater good of humanity. How could I possibly know that?
I couldn't.
In reality, it's probably a terrible idea to think that you can abandon real life and move into a computer simulation for the sake of being perfectly happy, but is it selfish? You may say yes, but let me ask this: would it be selfish to deny someone you love perfect happiness?
As far as I know, life is real and everything that happens goes the way that it is supposed to. I am fortunate enough to have some happiness and although I may find it intriguing to venture into a perfect computer simulation, I couldn't give up my actual life for something that's artificial and only for me.
“The more time we spend interconnected via a myriad of devices, the less time we have left to develop true friendships in the real world.” ― Alex Morritt, Impromptu Scribe
