Escape from Reality

As new technological advancements enable us to create

virtual worlds and alternate realities, we increasingly face
the problem of escaping from reality and live in a fantasy
world. Images on screens are fast replacing the things
themselves, further alienating us from the natural world and
the world of real people. We like our own images on screens
more than ourselves. New developments in artificial
intelligence (AI) will further take us into unknown
territories. Can we as human beings live in between these
alternate worlds and still retain our humanity?
Creating alternative realities may not necessarily be a bad
thing. This is what literature offers us in creative and
enriching ways. Pointing to an ideal world may help us keep
our hopes and standards high. But the same thing can be a
delusional way of running away from the reality that defines
our human condition and compels us to take responsibility for
our actions. We run away from the reality in which we live
because we can no longer stand what we have created with
our own hands. Replacing this reality with virtual worlds,
machines, robots and AI inventions is not the way to find
peace, tranquility, happiness and a sense of fulfillment.
Rather, it is loosing ourselves in multiple layers of imaginary
worlds.
In recent years, several novels and movies have taken up this
fascination with the possibilities of AI and going over the
human boundaries. The Matrix trilogy, "Ex Machina,"
"Westworld," "Black Mirror," "I Robot" and "Blade
Runner 2049," among others, tell the stories of building new
realities with opportunities as well as the devastating
consequences. The common theme is what defines humanity
in the face of new technological developments and the desire
to want more of everything. What happens when we
outgrow ourselves and become captives of our own
creations? As we know too well from the ever-fresh
Frankenstein story, how do we deal with our own
monsters?
The 2017 movie "Ghost in the Shell," directed by Rupert
Sanders and starring Scarlett Johansson, takes up the
question of what happens when people use other humans as
machines for their personal gains and corporate interests. The
film's lead character, Major Motoko Kusanagi (Johansson),
is a cyber-enhanced soldier fighting the world's criminals.
She is the first of her kind – a human soul, or ghost, with new
enhancements and a robotic body, i.e., a shell. When she
realizes that she has been lied to and turned into an AI thing
against her own will, she begins to question everything.
Although simplistic at times, the movie raises important moral
and philosophical questions. What happens when governments
and big corporations begin to alter people's minds and souls to
serve their interests? Who has the right to re-design people's
memories and emotions so that they will not remember
anything and obey the commands? It is a betrayal of our
fundamental human values to force people into believing that
they will have a better and happier life in a future virtual
world far more advanced than the current reality in which
they find themselves because they will no longer be themselves
but a simulation, a program, an enhanced ghost in a perfect
body.
In "Ghost in the Shell," some terrible things happen in the
future dystopia. But we do not have to look far to see the
disturbing fact that this is already happening. Our current
technologies and the profit-driven companies that own them
are seeking to change people's perceptions, desires and tastes
so that they become unquestioning servants of consumer
capitalism. They would feel good about themselves by
spending more, by wanting more and by becoming something
other than themselves. Worse, most people are willing to pay
the price for this delusional mode of a perfect existence.
This seems to be punctuated by a deep desire to run away
from our own reality to an imaginary world at all costs.
Why do people want to escape into a fantasy world while
fully knowing that it is just that, i.e., a fantasy world? What
are we running away from? What is missing in our lives so
much so that we take refuge in artificial and virtual worlds
that we know very well to be unreal and fictional?
I am not sure if we are ready to ask these questions to
ourselves in a serious and honest way. If and when we do,
the magic of this self-gratifying illusion will dissipate and we
will perhaps face our naked humanity with its blessings and
imperfections. We may then realize that what defines our
humanity does not lie in our ability to create machines better
than us, but in treating the world of nature and our fellow
people with intelligence, care and love. Producing self-
destructive systems is not the smartest way of utilizing our
God-given abilities.
Instead of creating fantasy worlds to escape reality, we have
to change our own state of mind and soul so that we can live
in harmony with our own reality. Perhaps, we can try to
improve the state of our reality so that we do not feel
compelled to run away from it. This requires serious
questioning of our modern priorities and finding a new
direction in our lives, a direction that will bring us closer to
our inner reality and shared humanity.