There is no invention (that i can imagine) i would look forward to if Mind Upload VR was real.
That would mean stagnation, but progress is only good if it reduces suffering. And i just can not see how making faster computers and learning physics can reduce suffering if there is Mind Upload VR, where all pain is optional.
As long as the VR is more like a Matrix where the body still ages and dies, of course i would want research to continue so death does not rip me from my awesome virtual life before i have played it trough. Maybe even multiple times.
I agree that progress will most likely slow down once Matrix VR is real because why waste your precious years lerning physics and biology when there is affordable VR?
Once Mind Upload VR is there i can actually see science progressing much faster, because if you have a processor that can simulate one conciousness and be loaded 10%, you can either put 9 more people on it, or you could speed up time 10x, so the mind that is researching new technology will experience 10x more time than real time and be done with research much faster.
Or you could store yourself on disk and wait 1000 years to have science catch up.
Assumptions:
Positives:
Negatives:
If such VR is ever achieved, almoset everyone will live in it, and those living in it will look back and ask themselves how humans were ever happy to live like we do today.
Arch: 30sec for update, 2min for full system upgrade
Kubuntu: 2min for update, 10min for full system upgrade
Windows: 5min for update, 30min for full system upgrade
Ubuntu: Please close firefox so i can install update. You closed it? Well… the update can wait.
Gentoo: 💀
Idk about Just Stop Oil, but as a someone from Germany, a country that has done what you seek to do, namely moving from 3rd world conditions to 1st world conditions by the use of the cheapest energy source: fossil fuels, there is a sad secret i can tell you:
As per my quick and unscientific calcualtions, Germany used fossil fuels over a period of roughly 120 years to bring ~80M people from 3rd world conditions to the current level, emitting roughly 80bn tonnes of co2 and heating the planet by 0.145C.
If we apply this very rough calculation to 1bn Indians (blissfuilly ignoring the rising population of India), Indians will have to work tirelessly for the next 50 years at 2x our speed to do this. So most indians living today will likely never see that dream fully come true.
As a result earth will be heated to 2.95°C (current temp + heating by Indians), a temperature incompatible with boring 3rd world stuff like farming. If we add the african continent (>1.2bn) to the mix (they also want to achieve this, i asked them), it’s more like 5°C.
In the end, Indians will have to decide: Do you guys want to want to have your grand-children drive cars, or do you want that your children have stuff to eat.
Here in Germany the people have already decided: We want to achieve a ratio of peope-to-cars of 1:1 (as God planned for us) (We are at 0.583:1), and for that we are sacrificing our grandchildren’s cravings for food (and your grandchildren’s too). But that is ok, because they are not born yet, so we can not hurt them. And also: Food is so boring.
If we fail, and someone forces us to abandon our ways and do koombayah without cars and with renewables (idk that’s Indian i think), we will just say we did not know that co2 was harmful and that we just did what our boss ordered. Worked for our grandparents, will work for us.
I already know what Indians will decide, for they are just like us: You will choose the cars.
Peace to India, and remember: We are the good guys, we knew nothing, we just wanted to be happy (life is not worth living without a car).
May contain large amounts of sarcasm, sry for bad english, i’m in a hurry.