I am writing this article just prior to the annual Halloween celebrations in the USA. Whereas most people will focus on the trick & treat celebrations, and maybe go and see a scary movie, it reminded me of just how technology defines the future.
The simple "Jack-o-lantern" that symbolizes Halloween says far more about humanity than we give it credit. The fact that it is a simple pumpkin that has a candle burning inside, that lights a path to a door for the kids to trick & treat, has some interesting history behind it. The story goes that back in the 1600s, people were fascinated and spooked by mysterious lights. These "ghost lights"—variously called jack-o’-lanterns, hinkypunks, hobby lanterns, corpse candles, fairy lights, will-o'-the-wisps, and fool's fire—are created when gases from decomposing plant matter ignite as they come into contact with electricity or heat or as they oxidize. For centuries before this scientific explanation was known, people told stories to explain the mysterious lights.
Lighting back then was a marvel. The invention of the simple candle meant that life in a day didn't have to stop when the sun went down. The lack of vision that comes from darkness limits us from having more than a 8-10 hour a day life. It somewhat forces sleep since you can't do anything in the dark, other than expose yourself to pain and injury from attempting to move in it.
The technology of lighting evolved. Candles were eventually moved to glass enclosed lanterns. Candle power eventually became gas power. Gas power eventually changed due to the invention of electricity and our lives expanded from an 8-10 hour a day experience, to a 12-14 hour a day experience, where physical sleep became the "timer" of when you woke and when you rested. This additional 50% time represented the ability for humans to engage in reading, learning, studying and eventually mastery of so many things that were part of the physical world we live in - from chemistry to electronics to physics to religion. We "evolved" by investing this additional time into learning pursuits - pursuits that then allowed the leveraging of knowledge into the world of computers, transportation, farming and economics.
If nature had her way, when the sun went down we would stop and go rest. But we found a way to not have such a hard stop as that. We take it for granted that the sun going down doesn't signal the end of the day. We rarely think about it, but it is because of technology that we have reclaimed this time. In some ways, it is not real. It is a technology induced fiction that didn't exist 500 years ago.
This is just one example of how technological advancement changes human culture. But those that were able to leverage from witnessing this advance became the industrialists and wealthy barons of the 19th and 20th century. Imagine if you knew that electrical lighting was going to transform your inner city area. If you were that person, would you not be able to "predict the future" and position yourself ahead of the wave, and capitalize on it?
In this way, I see that technology has created a "virtual world" which we refer to as night-time. But in the same manner, technology has created other virtual worlds and as society moves forward, I see these as critical in human evolution.
MMORPGs (or "Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games") such as World of Warcraft, Eve Online, Second Life, Fortnite, First Person shooter games, etc. represent the collective embrace of a virtual world that either is fictional and yet brought to your consciousness through technology. Whether the delivery mechanism is your computer screen, a phone, or some 3D set of wearable glasses (such as the Occulus or Magic Leap), we are bringing a created world into the minds of humans.
By congregating together in "guilds" or "clans" or "tribes", we represent the human need of socialization, without physical exposure to the dangers of the physical world. Sometimes the two intersect, which causes social challenges but ultimately we are drawn to these virtual worlds because they represent an escape of the negative side of the physical world. The physical world's dangers can be real or perceived, but clearly with the mass media broadcasting the worst of human activities and manipulation of the human mind by those in corporations or politics or warring states, it is not surprising to me that more and more people gravitate to virtual places that don't have such a negative experience.
In these worlds they can control an avatar that can be all they might have wanted to be in the physical world. They can be successful, rich, powerful, strong, which may not be available to them in the physical world due to perceived or enacted restrictions of economics, region, social standing, disability, etc. The first guard that gravitate to the virtual world tend to be those most exposed to the downside of the physical world, yet eventually we all will succumb to the draw of escape as our physical world degrades before our eyes.
We challenge our perceived reality everyday. In the social culture, we embrace movies and stories that define and celebrate these mass fictions, from Star Wars to Star Trek, from Lord of the Rings to Dungeons & Dragons. Even films such as "The Matrix" exposed the challenge of determining fact from fiction, and then realizing that the virtual fiction may in fact be far more interesting and enjoyable than the true reality of life.
The true dystopia that we are all attempting to escape is no different to the night time that the candle or gas lantern or electrical light, removed us from. In these ways, those technological advances created a new existence that changed humanity profoundly.
Now in the 21st century, we sit on the cusp of venturing out to other planets. Mars is pretty much a certainty. We will send human beings there, and they will colonize it. We will claim it for our planet and we will create virtual existences on that planet that are no different than building a city in the middle of the desert. By artificially moving water from abundant sources to the desert, we have created cities like Phoenix, Arizona (where I live) - a place that 100 years ago would be so in hospitable that no one could live here, particularly in the middle of July. We "terraformed" this place and it is now the 5th largest city in the USA. The same could be said of the San Fernando Valley region of Southern California, or Las Vegas or Palm Springs, etc. Technology allowed us to create these mega cities that are destination spots, even though they are collections of tens of thousands are artificial structures in a inhuman location, fed by technology whether that be solar power, re-routing water ways, hydro-electrical power, or nuclear energy.
The same will be true of Mars and all other planets that come after it. As we spend more of our future in colonization and exploration, we need ways to immerse the human brain for long periods of time so that it won't go insane. Would it not be that virtual MMORPG like environments are the ideal immersion to get through 12 months of space travel?
The shift in cultural perception of value is the greatest opportunity for wealth creation. Those that understood the value of gold, and mined it while others ignored it, became the barons of the past. Those that understood the value of digital currencies (like Bitcoin) and mined it back in 2009, became the billionaires of today - less than 10 years later. Those that understand how blockchain based technologies, like Steem, etc. and see something today that humans will gravitate towards tomorrow, will be the billioinaires of the next 10 years. It has been like that since the dawn of time. Wealth shifts from those that are no longer worthy custodians of it, to those that become positioned to be worthy custodians. It shifts like water moving from one location to another. You just have to learn how to dam some of it for yourself.
So in a world that embraces escape from reality, would there not be opportunities in virtualization? I'm not talking about the technological virtualization of computers. I'm talking about the opportunities that open up in virtual worlds. The easiest to grasp would be virtual economies.
This all comes down to the perception of value. If someone spends 50% of their waking life in World of Warcraft, then the value of a particular artifact or weapon is high. They would be willing to pay a lot of money for that item. We saw this in the virtual economies that some of those very games determined were of more value than the subscription to play them. Standing Stone Games, the current owner of Lord of the Rings Online, and Dungeons & Dragons Online, did a shift from a subscription based gaming model, to a "store" based model where you give away access to the virtual world for free, but you then charge people real money "in game" for things they need. They increased their revenue 5 fold by doing this.
Soon there is a movie about to come out that chronicles this. It is called "Play Money" and I think it is representative of a quantum shift in wealth perception. Here's the trailer:
The most important thing in this is to understand how human beings change their perception of value over time, and often as a direct correlation to the technologies that are invented. Without the Internet and 3D video cards, etc. we would not be able to have such virtual environments, and consequently the economies that are created around them.
Humans shift their values from physical items to digital. Once we overcame the willingness to buy physical goods online, where they magically appear on our doorsteps a few days later, we then opened ourselves up to buying digital goods the same way. Universities moved their course-ware from physical "in person" distribution, to online colleges. Money moves from a physical gold backed security, to a digital "math backed" model with Bitcoin, etc. Human perception of our values system moves away from physically meeting someone for a job interview, to a reputation based scoring system similar to a FICO score for credit worthiness. Banks never need to meet with a customer to determine credit worthiness for a $1 million mortgage now, because of the faith & trust they place in digital scoring. The use of social media has become a tool to determine the behavior and political beliefs of an individual, which are often used as a means to determine the moral compatibility of a person with a vendor, etc. You can see that our lives are "virtualized" into a computer domain, so that other computer systems can determine if we are a compatible match.
In the same way, we may sell our labor to the digital world until that is no longer required. Eventually the automation will provide for us, so the concept of "work" will change dramatically. Those that own the robots, will be the barons of the 21st century.
The key here is to look to the future (at least 10 years ahead) and try and not only predict what it will look like, but more importantly the opportunities that will open up based on human adaptation to that future, and how the value perception of humanity will change as well. If you align yourself correctly with this, you will be a billionaire. No need to purchase a lottery ticket - the ticket is right there for those that have the mental clarity to see this.
This is your future now. Just substitute electricity for new inventions that will come in the next 10-20 years. Those that can imagine that future, and maybe play a part to create it, are more likely to be the beneficiaries of it. Those of us who simply dismiss this, are doomed to be victims to it.
You decide where you want to be and good luck.
