With UBI and simstim soaps we can have people plug themselves into the Matrix voluntarily, no scary robotic creepers required!
And yes, addicts exist today, but we keep inventing better and better drugs. What would be available to a peasant? Crappy beer? Now a denizen of the SF underbelly can be permanently in an alternate universe thanks to fentanyl.
Have you noticed another trend? We keep making real experiences, real food, real exercise harder to obtain and more expensive while pushing cheap imitations on the masses. VR is not going to be a happy thing that will help disabled people. It will mostly be a source of worsening inequality and a lot of suffering. The "have-nots" will be able to vicariously live the lives of the "haves", but only a fake version.
And yes, addicts exist today, but we keep inventing better and better drugs. What would be available to a peasant? Crappy beer? Now a denizen of the SF underbelly can be permanently in an alternate universe thanks to fentanyl.
Have you noticed another trend? We keep making real experiences, real food, real exercise harder to obtain and more expensive while pushing cheap imitations on the masses. VR is not going to be a happy thing that will help disabled people. It will mostly be a source of worsening inequality and a lot of suffering. The "have-nots" will be able to vicariously live the lives of the "haves", but only a fake version.