The World in 2030
The World in 2030 The World in 2030
The World in 2030 243 arbitrary sounds that a community agreed to bestow with meaning. Painting, writing, money and music are all virtual technologies for expressing the world around us, for the generation of pleasure, for the storing of knowledge and the storing of value. Even the colours around us don’t exist in their own right; it is our brains that provide the hues of red, green and blue and all of the subtle combinations that we perceive. Outside of our heads there are only varying wavelengths of light. We are so virtual that I believe our species would be better described as homo virtualis rather than homo sapiens and it is precisely for this evolutionary reason that I am so sure that we will all spend much of our lives in parallel virtual worlds; it is our natural habitat. Writing in 2002 Jeremy Rifkin clearly saw this trend emerging amongst the young: Whereas previous generations defined freedom in terms of autonomy and exclusivity – each person is a self-contained island – the children of the Web have grown up in a very different technological environment, in which autonomy is thought of (if at all) as isolation and death, and in which freedom is more likely to be viewed as the right to be included in multiple relationships. Their identities are far more bound up in the networks to which they affiliate. For them, time is virtually simultaneous, and distances hardly matter. They are increasingly connected to everyone and everything by way of an electronically mediated central nervous system that spans the
244 The World in 2030 whole of the Earth and seeks to encompass virtually everything in it. And, with each passing day, they become more deeply embedded in a larger social organism, in which notions of personal autonomy make little sense and the feeling of unlimited mobility is circumscribed by the sheer density and interactivity that bind everyone so tightly together. 458 If you don’t yet have an account with Second Life, 459 MySpace, 460 3B.net, 461 Facebook 462 or any of the other sites which offer both ‘fictional’ and ‘non-fiction’ alternative worlds, I will bet that your children do. It is a generational thing. If you want to know the future, watch your children. Just in case you are wholly unfamiliar with Second Life, here is a short description provided by MIT Technology Review: Second Life, which started out four years ago as a 1-square-kilometer patch with 500 residents, has grown into almost 600 square kilometers 463 of territory spread over three minicontinents, with 6.9 million registered users and 30,000 to 40,000 residents online at any moment. It’s a world with birdsong, rippling water, shopping malls, property taxes, and realistic physics. And life inside is almost as varied as it is outside. ‘I help out new citizens, I rent some houses on some spare land I have, I socialize,’ says a longtime Second Lifer whose avatar goes by the name Alan Cyr. ‘I dance far better than I do in real life. I watch sunsets
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244 <strong>The</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>2030</strong><br />
whole of the Earth and seeks to encompass virtually<br />
everyth<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> it. And, with each pass<strong>in</strong>g day, they become<br />
more deeply embedded <strong>in</strong> a larger social organism,<br />
<strong>in</strong> which notions of personal autonomy make<br />
little sense and the feel<strong>in</strong>g of unlimited mobility is<br />
circumscribed by the sheer density and <strong>in</strong>teractivity<br />
that b<strong>in</strong>d everyone so tightly together. 458<br />
If you don’t yet have an account with Second Life, 459<br />
MySpace, 460 3B.net, 461 Facebook 462 or any of the other sites<br />
which offer both ‘fictional’ and ‘non-fiction’ alternative<br />
worlds, I will bet that your children do. It is a generational<br />
th<strong>in</strong>g. If you want to know the future, watch your children.<br />
Just <strong>in</strong> case you are wholly unfamiliar with Second Life,<br />
here is a short description provided by MIT Technology<br />
Review:<br />
Second Life, which started out four years ago as a<br />
1-square-kilometer patch with 500 residents, has<br />
grown <strong>in</strong>to almost 600 square kilometers 463 of territory<br />
spread over three m<strong>in</strong>icont<strong>in</strong>ents, with 6.9 million<br />
registered users and 30,000 to 40,000 residents<br />
onl<strong>in</strong>e at any moment. It’s a world with birdsong,<br />
rippl<strong>in</strong>g water, shopp<strong>in</strong>g malls, property taxes, and<br />
realistic physics.<br />
And life <strong>in</strong>side is almost as varied as it is outside.<br />
‘I help out new citizens, I rent some houses on some<br />
spare land I have, I socialize,’ says a longtime Second<br />
Lifer whose avatar goes by the name Alan Cyr. ‘I<br />
dance far better than I do <strong>in</strong> real life. I watch sunsets