Of Virtual Men

The internet is a relatively new invention, but is perhaps the greatest creation in the history of the world. It interconnects the human family in a way unprecedented or even conceivable only a matter of decades ago. Had you said to someone born in the 1950’s that they would see the day when men would speak to each other face to face across any distance, that you could enlarge your learning and discuss topics with experts from anywhere, that anyone could become a journalist and broadcast globally, all within a matter of a few decades, they wouldn’t have comprehended what you meant. Today, the internet is becoming the blood of the economy. Dollars and cents are the measurement, but bits and bytes are the life-force.

I say this because it is now theoretically possible for one to create virtual men, creations that appear to exist in reality but in fact have no intelligence or physical existence. In the realm of video games, for instance, it is not uncommon to speak with a computer that has pre-programmed responses. In the near future, however, it would not be inconceivable for these computers to be programmed with more natural responses, more fluid conversations, and to even begin interacting with reality. I suppose this is the point forseen by Asimov when he discussed how robots could take over reality. I do not see robots taking over the human race in the form of the film “iRobot”. Such machines as that are far more complex and would take more than what we have today in order to develop. But, one could program a computer to interact with reality, making purchases, placing orders, designing and executing plans, and so forth, and no one would know the difference. It is quite terrifying in consideration, but what if one were to harness this power for himself? Online commerce has done so for years, leaving investment portfolios in the hands of the computer and allowing wealth to accumulate while the machine does the work. The Space Center is moving in this direction in some ways, developing online calendaring and staffing automation. Even BYU is largely controlled and regulated by computer systems that interact and coexist.

So, the question now becomes, how can one create this system for himself and use it to his advantage? It is like a God setting planets in motion, knowing that they will follow his predesigned path for an ultimate purpose. The path that I forsee being advantageous to me is quite surprising, at least to me. I do wish to develop systems capable of managing and mining data from businesses in logical fashions. For instance, writing a program that is able to tie into search engines, watersheds of human data, and business processes, finding relations in that data, and then presenting that information in meaningful ways. Another example could be creating a virtual me. This virtual me concept is very exciting, especially for one leaving on a mission. Would it be possible to clone portions of oneself into a system of logic for the sake of increasing your presence without supervision? Not an unlimited system, for the scope of such is infinite and impossible, but a finite system capable of, say, writing notes, making blog posts, ordering gifts, and doing other things for those around me? That would be truly fascinating, perhaps if it were even placed on a timed schedule, so in advance you could create events on a timeline, program parameters for such events, and then dispatching those events in order and on time in order to create a desired effect. That is exciting, the kind of thing that men have dreamed of and abstracted in different ways for millennia, the concept of dual selves or even immortality. I think it can be done.

Enough rambling, I must finish my physics.