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How Equestria could really exist and why it's a bad thing.


Octavia_Melody2

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I doubt that anyone will ever rip open the fabric of reality and travel to Equestria, but what is in the realm of possibility is a virtual Equestria that could simulate the physical sensations of the real world.

 

The software already exists to form a self-programming virtual world (as used in Minecraft) and with computer graphics becoming increasingly advanced, it wouldn't be too farfetched to someday be able to upload ourselves into a virtual world that perfectly simulates a real one.

 

Which I think would be a bad thing because people might lose themselves to the "Matrix Equestria" or whatever virtual world. There have already been several news stories about people dying from playing video games for days on end and the same thing could happen here.

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Which I think would be a bad thing because people might lose themselves to the "Matrix Equestria" or whatever virtual world. 

 

Stories like this one come to mind when this subject is broached.

 

I've read many comments from people stating that they would give anything to be a pony.  And no one can deny that a lot of people who are plagued with anxiety and depression find MLP to be a pleasant escape from their issues.  

 

Such people would likely lose themselves in the virtual world of Equestria, going so far as to neglect their physical health and avoid any social interaction in a bid to remain there and indulge their fantasy.    

Edited by J. Brony
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Such people would likely lose themselves in the virtual world of Equestria, going so far as to neglect their physical health and avoid any social interaction in a bid to remain there and indulge their fantasy.

 

I most likely wouldn't be immune to the temptation either. I already spend a considerable amount of time online and considering we are on this particular website, the future scares me.


I also found that there is an entire fanfic universe built on this concept.

 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/FriendshipIsOptimal


Also, I didn't know that people were so obsessed with Avatar. Scary. (Besides, wouldn't a real life Pandora be extremely dangerous to visit?)

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What you're hinting at is tentatively explored in the 2009 movie Surrogates, where the primary means of human life in developed countries becomes "living" in virtual reality pods where the necessities of survival are provided for a stationary person, and their "life" is lived through a customization, durable, enhanced (and for the military, replaceable) remote-control androids.

 

The idea of "connecting people to the Matrix" often smacks somewhere between the philosophical Brain in a Jar solipsism problem and the highly speculative ethics of the very young concept of transhumanism.

 

Ultimately though I really don't buy either of those scenarios being dangerous because anyone who seriously argues that some giant internet connectivity replacing human interaction with the world does not have a very all-encompassing perspective of the varieties of human paradigms and cultures which would forever reject the possibility of the whole matrix-connectivity thing.

 

The whole ubiquity of "everyone plugged into the matrix" also conveniently overlooks the stupendous luxury of a proposed system which could only possibly exist if every person in the world lived in a place at minimum as developed as a moderately sized American city-- and also presumes all of the necessary infrastructure, such as power generation and food growth-- to make it run efficiently.

 

As an Engineering student, people who think everyone will be plugged into the Matrix, forgets how much work it takes to design the plug.

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I think this concept has been explored in a number of different literary and visual mediums, as you said the Matrix as an example.  I think this concept often gets explored in the realm of sci-fi literature, but that would be me being bit presumptuous without looking into it into too much detail.  I'm thinking of a game on Steam which his this concept as an element to its story backdrop called master reboot.  But other than that, I don't seriously think that some thing like that would be possible right now as @@Blue has stated for the obvious hurdles that would easily halt a VR project so quickly.   Fun to play around with the idea, but doesn't sound at all possible to execute in the near future.

 

I'm also thinking of the term hyper-reality to also describe some similar theoretical elements that you're getting at as well OP.

Edited by pony.colin
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Hmm....

 

How about something a little less grand that an Equestrian Matrix?  Something akin to Sword Art Online, only set in the world of MLP?  I think that's a little closer to society's current level of technology.  

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