If there is a high fidelity nice simulation of a pleasant world, and the actual real world is a hellscape, what is the problem with that?

If you were presented with the fact that whatever your life is is just an illusion, and you are actually a starving slave in North Korea, you would choose to "wake up"?

Why not just take cocaine to fake good feelings, instead of seeking real-life experiences that generate good feelings?

(I mean, a lot of people do do that!)

Well, there are huge downsides to using cocaine, whether it is undesired health impacts, or addiction, or threat of arrest, or mere cost, or even just social stigma.

I'm not sure there are downsides to living out your life in a simulation while robots take care of your physical form.

A lot more people would do that if cocaine was legal, I suspect.

This is like something out of Ready Player One

More like The Matrix, which was originally referenced.

The Matrix is like the next step. Ready Player One, people were mostly on VR. Ready Player Two is where they became sort of jacked in.

Only those that can afford it. The rest will be forced to live in the real world, like 20th century peasants.

actually the opposite imo, this stuff is the ultimate bread and circus to distract poor people from worsening living conditions. Much cheaper to provide VR goggles with AI model access than housing and healthcare

As long as sex is the competition, I don't think that's likely. Simulating orgasms will require the Apple iPleasure Maxxx implant and expensive brain surgery & recovery.

I'm not sure sex is always going to be the competition. More and more people are sexless (by choice or not).

There are already sex toys that you.. insert yourself in, and then have scripts that sync up movements with VR videos you are watching.

Crazy times coming in the next few decades.