Last night I watched Inception , I really liked this movie, "a dream within a dream within a dream", lucid dreams, programmed reality ...

Had anyone else watch this movie?

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"We are living in a computer programmed reality."
- Philip K. Dick, 1977

I saw it. Highly recommended - the movie was very well done. Not sure that the idea of the totem was fail-safe, though.

http://inceptionmovie.warnerbros.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_Sky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix
Inception has some fascinating implications. Its not Vanilla Sky or the Matrix, but this version of immersion is just as cool.
A computer program that links a group of minds to a VR setting. Everyone linked is lucid dreaming in a way through their digital versions. Depending upon the intensity of the program, it can get deep into an persons long & short term memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_syndrome
Such an interactive "Inception" program could eventually allow a locked body to communicate on a screen or in a VR-ER environment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriplegia
In the case of a paralyzed person that can still talk, a holographic avatar could be provided.
http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Avatar_Wiki
Unlike in the movie where an experience body could be grown, can a persons consciousness actually be transferred into a new body?

You can hear & see a person through voice mail & home movies etc., but those are just sounds & images of a person. Their actual consciouses isn't in those recordings.

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Transporter
Biological teleportation would have to transmit an individuals consciousness. Otherwise its just a recording & transmission of flesh at the subatomic level.
http://www.research.ibm.com/quantuminfo/teleportation/
http://www.research.ibm.com/quantuminfo/teleportation/braunstein.html
http://teleportationtravel.com/ibm_invents_teleportation_system.html
http://www.zapfuture.com/article227.html

The hard way of transporting things for quite a while yet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_(Lake_Havasu_City)#Description

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_teleportation
http://www.physorg.com/news193551675.html
http://news.discovery.com/tech/teleportation-quantum-mechanics.html
http://io9.com/5544743/china-has-a-quantum-teleporter-and-we-dont
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_superposition

The Star Trek version is scanning & recording a person right down to the quantum level. Then transmitting the data along with the consciousness to the new location in milliseconds.

http://www.enspirepress.com/hypnosis_information_articles/quantum_exploration/quantum_exploration.html
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=non+local+consciousness&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart

Or once the persons body has been successfully teleported to the new location, their consciouses will instantaneously reattach to their body.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience
People have experienced the OBE since ancient times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_viewing
Some people have the ability to perceive things far from their body. Its like they are in a VR environment & we are all in this space.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room-temperature_superconductor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System

Some day when a quantum version of GPS becomes possible, then safe teleportaion could start to happen. You need GPS to cover a planet or moon & a quantum version to accurately locate the atomic & sub atomic data of a person. Then be able to reassemble the body in nanoseconds.

Transferring ones consciouses into a new Avatar body could be quite some time off as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation
Hindu & Buddhism imply that ones consciousness is eventually transferred into a new body in the time & space continuum. This sure seems like a very advanced notion for people to have since ancient times.

Anyway, back to Inception I could easily watch that movie a few times a year.

In the end he was looking at the faces of his children, which he could finally see, instead of watching to see what the top did.

IOW, he no longer cared if he was in some root level reality or not - all that mattered is that he could see his children's faces again.

And that is the essence of virtual reality - the perception of the experience.

When we finally realize that materialism is as failed and unrealistic an explanation as "turtles all the way down", we then begin to reflect upon the notion, as in Cypher's observation:

Cypher:

Unlike Cypher, we don't have to prefer ignorance of the truth in order to achieve bliss (good experiences). We can be aware of the nature of virtual reality and realize that that is merely the way a vehicle for experience has been constructed.

I loved it but my sweetie got lost immediately, so I ended up screening it alone later. Nicely structured plotline, completely plausible premises, even decent dialog. I've been waiting for a better movie than Vanilla Sky to come alone. This certainly qualifies.

Then, I dug out the old VHS of ExisTenZ for a quick view, just for the fun of it...

Oh, and as a father, I doubt I would have cared if that totem topped or not, so I guess there are some VR worlds I would chose over others but the real question is how does the VR world compare to my actual existence? Obviously, in many scenarios there would not be enough criteria to make an informed decision.

My view is if you can't be with the Reality you Love, Love the One you're with.

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Calimore Callierionde