Of Dreaming and Dreamers

Today, I'd like to scribble about an interesting technological development and its potential influence on human society.

For me, its a development related to technology and potentially, business. Yet, its an area of business mixing with pleasure. And this development is concerned with the most intense form of pleasure known to mankind.

My encounter with this development goes back to about 1999 - when I had anticipated the development of digital 3D applications to various purposes, creating white papers on each such application. One of these applications was to Archaeology - which has been developed quite thoroughly throughout the world (except in India, of course - which will probably do it as a me-too endeavor, when the rest of the world has already done it).

The other major anticipated development is what I am going to talk about in this writeup - the use of 3D for online sex interactivity, and 3D sex games.

Revenue-wise, this is the biggest money spinner of them all. Playboy, penthouse, and the sex-video industry will pale in comparison to the kind of steady monies that can flow from this.

The basic premise begins here - the internet has shown us the addiction potential for gaming and for the human inclination to accessing human interaction purely via the net/computer.

Humans do seem to have a predilection for interacting and playing. Make it easy for them, and they'll do it all the time. Take this already powerful inclination and add the element of sex to it, and you have a killer.

But, why is this intriguing? The net and computing developments has brought in various applications and isn't this is just one of them?

Not really - I find this development exceptional and far-reaching, because it is an unprecedented step in the history of man-kind, where for the first time technology allows us to obtain sexual gratification without ever physically interacting with another human being. Almost all other developments have been modernized versions of something people used to do thousands of years back anyway. Chat, telephony, databasing, calculations have always been there - we are merely able to do it in a much more rapid and efficient manner.
This new development of online 3D sex games ushers in a new era that can influence social equations and existing social structures in a very fundamental manner, without appearing to do so.

Mind you, I am not talking about simple video games here - These games are an entirely different genre, where your co-players are other real humans, and you play in an environment that is visually very close to reality.

This is a concept that I would name as Co-dreaming - participating in collective dreams at an unprecedented scale.

Imagine, if a million people could together enter a fantastic dream, which behaves with the same rigorousness of actual reality - there are rules and laws of physics that are obeyed in this dream - there is no irrationality in this world, but the rationality of this world is specific to it - it is not the same rationality of the actual reality.

This co-dreaming is the advent of the MMORPGs.

I recall reading, as a kid, a sci-fi story (forget the author), where a space mission is traveling to a new planet for the first time, and the crew is confined in the space-capsule together for the few years that it takes the capsule to reach the planet.
To pass their time, the crew invents a fantasy role playing game, in which they create mental worlds with castles and kings, and each member of the crew assume a character in this world, and they build the story as they go along, interacting with each other.
Unfortunately, the game becomes too real for them, and when they finally land on their destination - the icy planet, it is as if they have entered the world of their dreams. The ice structures seem to them as the castles of their games, and some of the crew members are unable to deal with it, and lose their rationality. Pretty interesting story. I don't recall what happens in the end - but that's irrelevant for this topic.

Now, the advent of the MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game) is the equivalent of what happens in the story that I just related. Co-dreaming allows thousands of individuals to enter a common fantasy world of their collective choice, and interact in it - have adventures, grow in strength, gain friends and adversaries, achieve things, kill terrible monsters, make magic, and what-have-you.

Thus, this is not a dumb video game. Each character that you meet in this fantasy virtual world is the avatar of another human being, and thus, the character truly has its own mind and persona and this makes the game very real, and - very, very addictive. I would not be mistaken if I claimed that these games are much more mentally addictive than crack, or speed or coke, or any of the other hallucinogenic drugs.

Why are these fantasy worlds so addictive?

Simple - because actual reality sucks.

Actual reality does not allow you to live your fantasies. There are constraints and limitations that are too painful to surmount, as compared to the virtual fantasy worlds.

You actually have to seek out challenges, and do hard gruelling work to overcome them. Whether it is money, or material acquisitions or status - to achieve the fulfilment of a desire, you have to work hard, have the right connections, and have resources. Even the pleasurable aspects of actual reality have strings attached to them. To interact with a member of the opposite sex (or the same sex, or of another race/species, depending one's leanings) is quite a big pain. There is the courtship/mating ritual, then there is the adjusting to the presence of another human in one's life, and so on.

Why not opt for a reality that is much more pleasant, fantastic and gratifying?

What's your ultimate fantasy? Money? Fame? Sex? Its all yours for the taking, in a world of your choice.
If I put you into a room and supply you with basic food, clothing and shelter, and hook you to a VR machine where you can actually feel that you are in a 3D world of an MMORPG, and if I give you a wide choice of fantasy worlds, with their own challenges and pleasures - there are very few people who would want to go back to the actual reality that cannot be changed or influenced so easily.

It is human nature for an active and healthy mind to be attracted to adventures, challenges, intrigue, and curiosities.
The MMORPGs offer everything that can appeal to such an inquisitive, intelligent, and active mind.
With a low cost internet connection and an affordable monthly subscription, you can very well be the general of your own army and conquer planets, vanquishing other intelligent minds, and triumphing in the overcoming of challenges.
Now, to these kosher 3D MMORPGs, add the element of sex, and see how powerful it can become.

Already, there are people who spend 2-3 years of their productive lives hooked on to these games. They lose their social skills, and functioning knowledge of the real world - their entire domain expertise centers around how many mana points one has to gather to reach level 10, and how to acquire a magi cloak that will allow them to blast the hell out of the other characters.
With the advent of sexually oriented 3D MMORPGs, the scenario becomes much more crazy.
Mind you, these games are not necessarily JUST sex - some of them are, and these will be relegated to the pure-porn games. But the real bad ones will be the ones which ALLOW you to be sexual in the world, if you want to, while at the same time offering the other standard fare of the MMORPGs - fantasy, adventure, challenge, etc.

Why would a person, totally into an MMORPG, ever wish to get up from the PC? Perhaps, to eat, to go to the loo, maybe, and maybe to earn money to pay for the necessities of life (the game subscription amount being part of these necessities now)

Showers? Dispensable. Who's gonna come and smell you in front of the monitor anyway?

Socializing? The MMORPG offers you social contact in much greater abundance than real-life, and a thousand time easier, too.
Money? One doesn't really need much to maintain the virtual life-style. A non-interfering job at the local pizza bar would do quite well.

Gratification and challenges? Virtual worlds offer much more than what reality can ever dream of.

Sex? Oh, now with the sexual element entering MMORPGs, you don't need to step out of your room to achieve sexual gratification. Plus, the real world has too many constraints on your sexual nature. In the fantasy world, you can be multigamous or multiandrous, do it with any of the three genders, with any species, and with any age, and even bite off the head of your virtual partner during climax, if you feel like it.
I am sure there are already interfaces being developed that will connect a device that couples your genitals to the PC, and your virtual sex partner (sitting in iceland, maybe) can click on the mouse and give you all the sexual gratification you need. If this device is connected to your virtual avatar in the 3D world, then you become a full-fledged sexual being in the virtual world as well.

Money? Some MMORPGs (like SecondLife, for example) even allow you to make virtual game-money in the 3D world, and there are ways to convert this game-money into real dollars. There are entire parallel economies existing in these worlds. It may not make you much, sure - but the economy is just starting out.

Marriage? What do you need physical presence for? Isn't marriage all about the meeting of minds? And, besides, what is inconceivable about two fantasy characters being married to each other ina game? You might see divorce suits filed in the real world, where the applicant cites infidelity of the spouse with a virtual game character. You may see regulation being passed, which prohibits people from marrying other characters in a MMORPG world without the consent of their real-world spouse. Imagine, you could never meet a person all your life, and you could have a relationship with the person - go on adventures and vacations in fantastic worlds, the person can heat up your coffee every morning by sending a signal to your networked coffeemaker, have sex with you through appropriate human-computer interfaces, give you thoughtful gifts via amazon, and be with you virtually all the time. Virtually, a person can be with you in a way that nobody can be in the real world.

Children? Sure, you might need a physical spouse to have kids - but would you be willing to settle for a co-created virtual AI algorithm that is born in the pleasing 3D virtual form of an infant, grows virtually, and reflects your joint personalities? Are you willing to bet that you wouldn't get really, really attached to such a creation that actually grows to adulthood?

Co-dreaming is about to influence the human civilization in a big big way. And the reason why I am writing this is because of the advent of sexuality into the MMORPGs - I see this advent as the clinching factor in the power of MMORPGs. After this, there is no turning back.

So, what scenarios does the future hold? Just like drug addicts, you will have game addicts, and their rehabilitation centers. In fact detoxing a game addict will be a much more difficult job - what the hell is one going to cure?? The person's desire to enter a beautiful, instant and involving reality? And why would the world want to cure a person whose addiction doesn't really harm the rest of the world? The world doesn't care for those who have no nuisance value or for those from who it cannot directly benefit.

Due to the easiness of access to such games, some of our best minds could, perhaps, be lost to the world of game-zombies. A kid who could probably grow up to be a top level scientist, creative director, doctor, or a strategist for a big company may end up being pulled into gaming early on, and provide gratification to his abilities through this non-productive channel.

Is it not possible to have entire generations who get so conditioned to the idea of virtual relationships and virtual worlds that they develop an acquired antipathy towards the real world, who are rendered incapable of civilized interaction to real humans?

Maybe, I am being too imaginative. Maybe all this will not influence human society in any big way.
But...then again - what if it does?

My big question is - what do such developments signify for the human collective consciousness?
I am quite inclined to believe that all of mankind is one large creature - and we individuals constitute the neurons of this larger consciousness. And trust me, this larger consciousness behaves quite similarly to the consciousness of an individual - it has similar personality traits, troubles, idiosyncrasies, irrationalities, and, most importantly - vulnerability to illusion, paranoia, and susceptibility to such other mental afflictions, as well.

What happens when the collective consciousness of man-kind starts co-dreaming? Is man-kind turning into an artist, a creator who dreams of various things and scenarios?
What happens to an individual when he/she dreams of fantastic day-dreams? Probably, there are groups of neurons who get together and hallucinate the dream. Harmless, so long as the overall consciousness understands that this is a mere dream, and treats it as such.

I am not so worried about co-dreams that are clearly fantastic - where you acquire magical powers and fly around, etc. The danger here, I anticipate, lies in having co-dreams that match reality to a great extent, and yet, since it is not really actual reality, train an individual player to believe that he has a grip on actual reality.

We will see the advent of educational co-dreams. You will have people who participate in CBT (computer based training) exercises in a MMORPG world, which quite replicates real-world scenarios to a great extent.
I anticipate that there will be small groups of individuals who will come together, create an MMORPG, and then it is maintained very easily by one or two individuals, who make money from subscriptions and donations. Thus, there will be thousands and thousands of individual fantasy, educational, entertainment worlds that one can simply log on to, and play. The good ones will survive, grow, and prosper - and the bad ones will simply be formatted out of existence eventually.

Again - Welcome to the world of co-dreaming. Its going to be one fantastic ride...

- atrakasya