Original story

Internet Now 21.11.2020

“Numbers of living dead exceed natural mortality figures” -

EU population register

In the course of last year, Europe’s virtual sanatoria and other hospices specialized in terminal patients connected up a total of around nine million persons to permanent VR ambient devices. The number was around 1.9 million more than those dying “naturally”. The figures, released yesterday, come from the EU’s Demographics Centre in Riga.

The popularity of the long-term use of VR continues to grow apace. In particular, the large section of “baby boomer” retirees in the population have been signing up for terminal agreements, in which the host establishments - often former private nursing homes - place their clients in a cybercasket. The casket monitors the occupant’s well-being, maintains muscle-tone, feeds in neural stimuli, and supplies essential nutrients in solution through an intravenous drip. The neural stimuli provide an extremely lifelike image of virtual reality.

Individuals who have tested the devices report that the effect is unnervingly realistic. Many who have experimented with the cybercaskets have asked after their test-drive whether they could be permanently transferred into VR suspension. In practice, however, this is only possible for the very wealthy or for those qualified for retirement, who have already amassed a sufficient and secure income. The most popular VR package on the terminal patient market at present is “Feelies”. The basic principles of the system were laid out by the British rock-musician-turned-sc-fi-novelist Mick Farren as long ago as 1978, in his seminal nihilist fantasy The Feelies (rev. 1988). The client first selects a Feelies surrogate actor or actress. On the basis of this, the cybercasket collects into its memory the sensual and environmental simulations registered from this subject’s neural system, and this “neural implant” is conducted to the client in VR suspension. In effect, the occupant of the casket lives passively the life of the chosen actor or actress.

By comparison, the more sophisticated second-generation simulations requiring an active response are gaining ground amongst couples or groups of friends who wish to experience their final adventures together. The active simulations are generally networked in such a way that those living out the same meta-life feel the simulated contacts of one another, and can in other respects influence the experiences of their shared simulation. It should be noted that both these virtual experience models are increasingly being used recreationally by the active population. According to recent figures issued by the Demographics Research Unit in Palermo, the European citizen spends an average of nearly ten hours a day in VR states. This is more than twice the average daily time spent, for instance, in television viewing at the height of the TV & video era in the last years of the 20th century. The large number of hours is also explained by the fact that an ever-greater share of the working population is now employed in service, maintenance, and data processing operations requiring virtual reality access.

Demographic forecasters are now suggesting that the world’s population will start to turn downwards more sharply after some 15-20 years, when the virtual reality industry has developed still further, and when virtual experiences become more significant for humans than such issues as reproduction and the family.

Hannula I. & Linturi R. 1998: 100 Phenomena. Yritysmikrot Oy, Helsinki 1998. Copyright notices ISBN 952-9508-18-2

Toteuma-arvio 2026

Toteuma lyhyesti

  • Ilmiön toteuma: 2/5
  • Toteuma viiden vuoden tarkkuudella: ei; arviointi-ikkuna on 2015–2025
  • Toteuma väljemmällä aikahorisontilla: vain osatekijöinä
  • Ilmiön ydin: elintoimintoja ylläpitävä teknologia ja pysyvä virtuaalitodellisuus luovat suuren ihmisryhmän, jonka elämä tapahtuu lähes kokonaan simulaatiossa ja jonka kuoleman raja hämärtyy.

VR:ää käytetään hoivassa ja saattohoidossa, ja elintoimintoja voidaan ylläpitää pitkään teknisesti, mutta miljoonia ihmisiä ei ole siirretty pysyviin cyberkapseleihin. Nykyinen VR ei korvaa tajuntaa tai kehon elämää kuvatulla tavalla.

Johtopäätös: ennuste tavoitti elämän ylläpidon ja virtuaalikokemuksen eettisiä rajoja, mutta ydinilmiö jäi toteutumatta.