CLIFFORD PICKOVER is a computer scientist and a staff member at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves: Sushi, Psychedelics, Parallel Universes, and the Quest for Transcendence.
Our desire to experience entertaining virtual realities is increasing. As our understanding of the human brain also accelerates, we will create both imagined realities and a set of memories to support these simulacrums. For example, someday it will be possible to simulate your visit to the Middle Ages and, to make the experience realistic, we may wish to ensure that you believe yourself to actually be in the Middle Ages. False memories may be implanted, temporarily overriding your real memories. This should be easy to do, given that we can already coax the mind to create richly detailed virtual worlds filled with ornate palaces and strange beings through the use of the drug DMT (dimethyltryptamine). The brains of people who take DMT seem able to access a treasure chest of images and experiences, which typically include jeweled cities and temples, angelic beings, feline shapes, serpents, and shiny metals. When we understand the brain better, we will be able to safely generate more controlled visions.
Our brains are also capable of simulating complex worlds when we dream. For example, after I watched a movie about people in a coastal town during the Renaissance, I was transported there later that night, in a dream. The mental simulation of the Renaissance did not have to be perfect, and I’m sure that there were myriad flaws; however, during that dream I believed I was in the Renaissance. If we understood the nature of how the mind induces the conviction of reality even when strange, non-physical events happen in dreams, we could use this knowledge to ensure that your simulated trip to the Middle Ages seemed utterly real even if the simulation was imperfect. It will be easy to create seemingly realistic virtual realities, because the accuracy of our simulations need not be perfect, or even good, to make them seem real. After all, our nightly dreams usually seem quite real, despite the logical or structural inconsistencies we recognize on awakening.
In the future, you will personally create ten simulated lives. Your day job is a computer programmer for IBM. However, after work, you’ll be a knight in shining armor in the Middle Ages, attending lavish banquets, smiling at wandering minstrels and beautiful princesses. The next night, you’ll be in the Renaissance, living in your home on the Amalfi coast of Italy, enjoying a dinner of plover, pigeon, and heron. If this ratio of one real life to ten simulated lives turns out to be representative of human experience, it means that, right now, you have only one in ten chances of being alive in the actual present.