Boundaries between real and virtual are blurring

The boundaries between real and virtual, public and private will disintegrate further as augmented reality spreads. That's the prediction of one researcher discussing "augmented reality". Things that might have been considered science fiction even a decade ago are rapidly becoming very possible, or are already here. But what are the implications? This article in the NZ Herald discusses some of them. One trend not mentioned, though, is the tendency for technology to move rapidly along a continuum from the possible, to reality, to the norm, to the obligatory. And each one of these developments make it harder for the individual (that's you and I) to be an autonomous person. The scary thing is that we happily give away so much for the sake of the technological baubles. In a book based on the TV sci-fi programme Red Dwarf, the characters get hooked on a virtual reality system called Better Than Life. Read the book and ponder. Or if you can't get hold of the book, Wikipedia has a summary.