tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9930327736097972872024-03-13T00:40:10.156-07:00Real Life in a Virtual WorldBret Carterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07358057018626638406noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993032773609797287.post-86196103635233796892017-07-14T15:19:00.002-07:002017-07-14T20:56:45.698-07:00You-Topia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiyTeSZ-WwCDVYrVkfHUH8MBfMGkMUqTypVyyKV-SWIAW89Qva9a6UG20RbGuaTs19LvO3x1uUkQri6nB8ZHSV_Unpl-59q_-uWtyvBsPiEWUlPcPFfvyrtaFgKIVK7Hxv3E4Yy7TIbZSX/s1600/RLDystopia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiyTeSZ-WwCDVYrVkfHUH8MBfMGkMUqTypVyyKV-SWIAW89Qva9a6UG20RbGuaTs19LvO3x1uUkQri6nB8ZHSV_Unpl-59q_-uWtyvBsPiEWUlPcPFfvyrtaFgKIVK7Hxv3E4Yy7TIbZSX/s320/RLDystopia.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">We
prefer a bleak future.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> Whenever we imagine what lies ahead, the outlook is
usually grim. Whenever a book, movie, or TV show envisions things to come, the
story takes place in a broken world. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Of
course heavy-handed agendas influence predictions. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Here’s a glimpse of the grimy, poisonous environment that awaits us all,
if we continue to neglect recycling. Behold the tyrannical AI who will emerge
out of our desperate dependence on social networks. Welcome to the barren
wasteland crawling with cowering survivors, the fate of us all if you don’t
straighten up and vote right. </i>Choose a flavor.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">But
what about right now? How are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>
doing? And while we’re at it, how does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your</i>
future look? You yourself may very well live to see one of the standard-issue
grim scenarios, but if you’re like most people, right now you might very well
be in the middle of your own private dystopia. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Some
things are fine. But there are some other things that are not so great. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Let’s
see if this hits close:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Moments after your
head leaves your pillow, you grab your cell phone to check for texts and
emails. You check Facebook to do some low-impact stalking of your 1,000
friends. </span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">With at least some
dread, you crawl to an upright position. You then turn on the news or some music
or an audiobook (or all three at the same time) so there will be some kind of
background noise while you frantically jury-rig a presentable version of
yourself with some hot water, a mirror, and laundry pulled directly from the
dryer. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">If you don’t skip
breakfast altogether, you eat it over the sink. Leaving a trail of crumbs and
goodbyes, you snatch up keys or kids and throw yourself out the door. You’re haunted
by the strong possibility you’re forgetting something, but you drive away with
the enthusiasm of a bank heist. </span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Catalyzed by some
form of caffeine, you slip into a hurricane of traffic. You try the right lane,
then the left lane, then the right lane, arguing with drivers who can’t hear
you.</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Your day consists
of disruptions and distractions. When you finally find your focus, it’s
interrupted by more emails, phone calls, and posts or tweets about what people
had for lunch. When the pace begins to feel bleary and blurry, you succumb to
chasing rabbits through internet links or you fasten your brain to a game app. Only
half of what you planned to do gets done.</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Dusk is imminent,
but you’re just getting started. You dive into a bonus round of extracurriculars.
Someone has to play piano, soccer, or karate. Someone has to grab bread, hot
dogs, or fast food. Someone has to drop something off, pick something up, or
drop off something someone forgot to pick up. And if even if you’re not the
specific “someone” directly involved, someone has to drive them there. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">You eventually
pull up to your house that you rarely see in the daylight. The house you’re
working so hard to have and yet hardly spend any time in. Now it’s time to have
a meaningful dinner with a screen. Small talk and loose ends lead to a fidgety
ramping-down processed through some form of digital anesthesia. If the day has
left you extra twitchy, you might rely on a visit to the medicine cabinet. </span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Then you go to
sleep.</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Eventually. </span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">With
apologies to the suffering of some distant, future dystopia—</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">We’ve
got problems right <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now</i>. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Granted,
we are not cannibals in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and we are not enslaved by
Googlebook Overlord.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">But
still. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 0.3in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Things
could be better. </span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Bret Carterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07358057018626638406noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993032773609797287.post-77890486623696365742017-05-14T15:52:00.002-07:002017-05-15T13:44:22.343-07:00The Blog, The BookThis blog is meant to serve as a platform to develop a book called <i>Real Life in a Virtual World</i>.<br />
This will be an analysis of how current trends in technology are effecting our world and the way we think, particularly from the perspective of a Christian. <br />
Although this blog will mostly contain sections that will ultimately be included in the book, there will also be posts of videos, various "rants," and other items connected with the basic premise.<br />
<br />Bret Carterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07358057018626638406noreply@blogger.com0