Our lives would be so much cooler:

 IF WE HAD HOLODECKS!!!

Some of you will have no idea what I'm talking about here. So let me explain. Holodecks were introduced during the phenomenal seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation (and other series that followed). They are rooms that emit holographic fields that replicate various forms of matter on any level or scale that you choose. Meaning that a small room could replicate a massive landscape with various people all around you with none of it being real. You could walk for days in a holodeck and still be in a very small room, with the floor being fake underneath the soles of your shoes, the holographic floor acting sort of like a treadmill.  Think of it like the next couple levels from 3D. And it's coming...believe you me.

Imagine the implications.

You could live inside your favorite movies, novels, comic books, and or fantasies. You could fly like Superman, save people from terrorists in the Nakatomi tower, fall in love on the Titanic, have Robert Pattison as your husband, relive the adventures of Robin Hood, and/or perform on stage as a beloved rock star.

Or you could just do as Data and Geordi do as Sherlock and Watson:

Geek euphoria FTW!

The possibilities are endless.

Sure there is the obvious problem of people getting lost inside fake worlds with fake people but let's be honest, there's people who can control themselves and there are people who can't, if you can't police yourself that's your problem. Not to mention it would be hypocritical for me to condemn this technology when I would totally be one of those people who would enter a holodeck and just NEVER leave. The chance to relive and be a part of my favorite stories? Come on now. For God sake's I can totally see myself entering into the Star Wars world and dying there forty years later. It definitely begs the rhetorical and metaphysical question of what is real and what isn't.

But let's not get that heavy (Marty McFly reference FTW).

Just like ANY new technology there are pro's and con's to it's application. From everything we've ever seen from new technology it would be totally irresponsible to judge it's benefits and weigh the negatives until it's been around a while. Almost all new tech is heralded as the beginning of the end of the world...until a few years pass and people get used to it.

Honestly, as I've expressed before I believe things are only getting better as we go along (as history shows us) and I truly think that we ARE headed towards a Star Trek-like world that Gene Roddenberry envisioned. But that's a whole other article (which IS coming).

My point is that if this tech is truly coming it might also be possible that it will eventually cost no more than a wireless internet bill. So eventually we might have to deal with the idea of people losing themselves entirely into a video game...

Or is that already happening...with affects being negotiable?

I've gotten off track. The point is that we all need our escapes. Whether we watch TV, read a book, play a video game, listen to music, and/or do a dozen other things that take us away from reality, we need to remove ourselves from the daily routine or a repetitive existence that is dull and mundane.

Holodecks may not be the next big thing, but it'd be cool if they were.