Virtual Potatoes

In certain cases, I tend to view science fiction genre as a whole on a spectrum of probable future realities that we may or may not arrive at depending on a set of factors that aren't easily comprehensible from a one linear point of view.

That said, the ingenuity of the human mind in creating fascinating stories that both carry a good element of truth and provide a great material to reflect on is really amazing.

It's akin to standing in front of a mirror and observing your reflection getting modified into aspects of yourself that you didn't even suspect existed.

Of course, predicting the future is a tricky business, especially in a world where almost anything is possible. But I'd like to think that future probabilities are mainly based on past experiences and present choices we make, both individually and collectively.

Bleeding Sun by Samuel Sagan is a sci-fi novel that I've referenced a number of times already. The story is mostly about a future oriented community that live on space stations around Mercury and the timeline of the story is a couple of hundred years(500+) from our current era.

In it, there's a graphic term called "virtual potatoes" that describes human beings who live completely virtual lives without any inkling of physical reality.

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Without revealing much about the story of the book, the Earth at that time is near completed ravaged by wars in which billions of people have died. Egypt or India or Japan as a country with amazing natural landscapes or incredible man made cityscapes is completed gone, except of course, their virtual replicas, which have been preserved through Virtual Reality.

Beyond Perplexed

What I have a hard time wrapping my head around every time I read this novel is thinking on the process by which a person becomes a "virtual potato".

This isn't described much but there are certain similarities with the classical Matrix movie, human bodies are put in a coffin like drawer with connected pipes into different parts of the body.

For one, it seems consciousness can exists and function independent of the physical body and the moment a person is born(or soon thereafter), their consciousness is in some shape or form plugged in VR and they begin their "virtual life" with little to no idea that they have a physical body.

This in of itself, which is consciousness existing independently of the physical body raises a host of philosophical and ethical questions.

If it's possible to transfer consciousness into a digital environment, what happens to the original body? Is the digital consciousness still "human," or is it something else entirely?

A rather interesting aspect is with the preservation of virtual replicas of destroyed natural and man-made landscapes.

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I get it, virtual replicas could offer a way to preserve our collective cultural heritage and allow future generations to experience a sense of continuity with the past.

But then, if we can create virtual replicas of any place or time, what happens when different groups or individuals have conflicting interpretations of the past? Is it like people will have different versions of different VR programs that describe a single place? How do we discern truth in such a case?

Anytime I read this book, I come away with more questions about probabilities I overlooked previously. Interestingly, I don't try to answer them, especially from a rational mind. The trick is in "sitting with the questions" without getting overly attached or invested in them.


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