Live Longer in the Metaverse? The Avatar Future of Humans
Channel: Lifespan News
Date: 2022-04-10

Avatars are the future, including both digital avatars and robotic avatars. But what does any of this have to do with life extension?

According to the CDC, in the US alone there were well over 14 million years of potential life lost due to fatal accidental injuries and 3 million to homicide between 2016 and 2020. Add in the amount of years of life lost due to diseases that people can pick up in public, or those stemming from injuries and ailments that weren’t themselves fatal, and it’s clear - the world is a dangerous place.

Riding in vehicles is very dangerous. If people only expect to live around 80 years, taking those risks may make sense. After all, you only have so many years to cram a lot of experiences into, and in a worst case scenario, you risk cutting a few decades off of your life.

But what if there was no limit? What if you could remain alive as long as you could avoid accidental death? Would you ever want to get in a car again? If we are able to overcome aging and disease - which is what we’re working towards - these questions stop becoming hypothetical and start becoming very real. And this is where avatars come in.

It’s easy to imagine a scenario in which humans with unlimited lifespans choose to prioritize the safety of their physical bodies over everything else,  interacting with society only through avatars.

For many people, this may not sound like any life worth living. They may say that they would never want to give up experiencing the smells, the breeze, and tactile sensations of a forest, or a beach, or the great cities of the world. And they may not want to miss the connection of experiencing a concert, or sporting event, or art museum, or simply being together with friends.

And that is completely understandable, but it also may fail to account for just how immersive the experiences that avatars provide could soon be. These sights, sounds, smells, and sensations may be convincingly duplicated, or even if they can’t, your brain could be stimulated to the point that it can’t tell the difference. How close to perfect would these systems have to be for you, personally, to decide that the risk of losing an unlimited lifespan is one not worth taking?

There are a number of fictional films and stories that show the level of immersion we may one day achieve. An obvious one is James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar, in which a human remotely operates a body to interact with Pandora. Another example of the level of immersion that could be possible is the virtual OASIS in Ready Player One. Other virtual worlds, such as those seen in the Amazon series Upload and the Black Mirror episode San Junipero, provide a place for consciousness to live and interact - regardless of whether they are humans with physical bodies, uploaded consciousnesses, or AIs.

There are already models, influencers, and musicians with real fans, throwing real concerts, that don’t actually exist. Other times, this technology enters the uncanny valley, and resembles a human to the point that it is familiar and recognizable, but has certain inhuman qualities that make it appear eerie and unnerving.

The future is going to get weird, and exploring how things could end up can help you better prepare for it. If you’re interested in these topics, we can explore them further so please subscribe so you don’t miss out.

SOURCES
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https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/index.html

The Metaverse and How We'll Build It Together, Connect 2021 - https://youtu.be/Uvufun6xer8

Atlas | Partners in Parkour - https://youtu.be/tF4DML7FIWk

Miquela - Speak Up (Official Music Video) - https://youtu.be/Rz8lxRxdwig

Avatar | Official Trailer (HD) | 20th Century FOX - https://youtu.be/5PSNL1qE6VY

Upload - Official Trailer | Prime Video - https://youtu.be/0ZfZj2bn_xg

READY PLAYER ONE - Official Trailer - https://youtu.be/cSp1dM2Vj48

Meet the Finalists of the $10M ANA Avatar XPRIZE - https://youtu.be/7v7YGnO13Tg

San Junipero - Black Mirror 3x04

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Stock footage & Images : Videoblocks.com, Shutterstock.com
Music: "Elastic Vibe" by Ziv Moran

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Host, Producer, & Editor - Ryan O’Shea
Art - Mattijs Vonk, Tim Maupin
Executive Producer - Keith Comito

#Avatar #Longevity #Metaverse #Robots

The opinions of the hosts and subjects of this video do not necessarily reflect the view of lifespan.io.