From: jdugger@gluttony.reed.edu (Jay Dugger)
Subject: Re: SCI: Direct Neural-Electronic Interfacing
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 23:32:21 GMT
Organization: Reed College, Portland, OR


In article <1992Dec10.070210.24589@u.washington.edu> clarke@acme.ucf.edu  
(Thomas Clarke) writes:
> 
> Reminds me of a science fiction story - don't recall author
> or title - ring a bell with anyone?
> 
> A time machine is invented and the intrepid explorer goes
> 200 years into the future.  When he gets out nothing has
> changed!?  The same buildings are there.  If anything they
> are run down and shabby, badly in need of paint.
> 
> After some wandering, he makes contact with the authorities.
> They readily accept his status as a time traveler and explain
> the new world to him.
> 
> It seems that direct neural-electronic interfacing has been
> perfected.  Everyone works to save up enough money so that
> they can retire for the rest of their life to a direct
> neural-electronic virtual world of their choice.  No one is
> interested in maintaining the here and now.  They only
> want to scrape up the funds needed to enter virtual heaven.
> 
> The traveler was aghast.  This is terrible, there's no intiative
> in this world.  This virtual retirement is the ultimate 
> decadence.  I must go back and warn against the development of
> this technology.
> 
> The authorities seize him.  "We can't allow you to go back.  This is
> the ultimate societal evolution.  No war, everyone ultimately is 
> happy.  Don't worry we will retire you into one of our more popular 
> worlds.  Anyone would kill for this opportunity."
> 
> They drag him into a room full of sleeping bodies to an empty couch.
> He is strapped down and IVs are inserted into his veins.  He feels his
> body numbing as goggles are placed over his eyes.  He is vaguely
> aware of a tingle as his spinal cord is severed to make the
> direct neural-electronic interface.
> 
> He feels the sun hot on the back of hands as he reins up his horse
> in front of the saloon ...
> --
> Thomas Clarke
> Institute for Simulation and Training, University of Central FL
> 12424 Research Parkway, Suite 300, Orlando, FL 32826
> (407)658-5030, FAX: (407)658-5059, clarke@acme.ucf.edu

	I don't recall this particular story, but the opening chapter of  
Olaf Stapledon's _Star_Maker_ detailed a similar civilization.  They had  
neural connect and the populace had retired to virtual worlds.  This  
sparked religous controversy: Can divine experiences be virtually enacted?  
It also doomed their world.  Their species was quite old, despite a  
recorded history of only a few thousand years.  Their atmosphere had  
thinned dramtically over the last million years or sp.  They only dis-  
covered this when it was too late for them to muster the will to do any-  
thing about it.  BTW, this was written between the First and Second World  
Wars.  Anothe successful prediction from science fiction!
------------------------
Jay Dugger
jdugger@reed.edu
------------------------
PGP Public Key available