by 
The tub of goo refers to the scene in The Matrix when they pull Neo out of the pod. For those who haven’t watched the Matrix 50 times like me, the humans are literally plugged into a computer simulation that presents a fantasy world as they lay in a pod filled with goo. I think of it as the extreme check-out from real-life and have often joked over the years about how we’re all heading towards the tub of goo.
I’m not laughing now. It’s not as crazy as it used to seem. The possibility that people choose to check out from reality seems less unplausible than it used to.
Here’s the After Capitalism twist. I think a key driver is personalization. Maybe we should call it hyper-personalization. Personalization on steroids. Personalization gone wild. Big data, algorithms, and AI are enabling marketers to pinpoint exactly what we want or need (for those with means of course). Capitalism is desperately searching for ways to provide value to feed the profit machine. More and more, it can provide exactly what we want … even before we know we want it. Extrapolate this forward and imagine how we might turn increasingly intolerant of situations and experiences that are not tailored for us. Perhaps the most challenging situation involves other human beings, who have their own unique needs and experiences. Dealing with people becomes increasingly problematic. We’re seeing the signs already of many people (especially younger it seems) who prefer not to interact with humans. Loneliness, isolation, and mental health is a major issues in many countries now. Think of this as a potential scenario … one we can avoid.
Like so many things, personalization is a good thing that has been taken to extreme levels and thus becomes a not-so-nice idea. [Another example is convenience, a great concept that is sorta killing the planet, but let’s leave that for another day.] I sure hope personalization is not on the verge of killing human interaction. – Andy Hines
Fun fact: in an early script for the Matrix, people were put in vats to assist in cloud computing (not energy production). It was the 90’s and this was considered a little too cutting edge, so the producers decided to dumb-down the narrative.
haha, that is a fun fact — thanks for sharing!
I wonder if they thought about people voluntarily choosing to get in the tub?
Looking at consumer AI, I think it has a way to go before it can tailor things exceptionally well. I think people are giving more credit to AI systems than it seems poised to actually deliver. I know the Google algorithms, which it obviously shares with Facebook, were pretty amusing. True story: I was using Google to find a friend of mine a particular type of Lengha Indian dress. I located a place in Houston and a closer place in Austin. Suddenly, beautiful Indian women wearing Lengha’s started showing up on my Facebook advertising! Quite decorative. However I, have a flowing mustache and I am a guy so I wasn’t in the market for a Lengha. If AI is programmed by the same people at Google, Facebook, etc. I believe we are sometime away from fine grain customizing for consumer product. The more important point though, that you touched on, is why would someone want to escape into virtuality? Has contemporary life become so bad, mundane, or too expensive to compel someone not to engage with the beautiful and wholesome reality of this world and the people in it? That is a serious social question that we need to look into. Keep writing your great thoughts, Andy.
I did once experiment with virtual reality at Second
Life, on the recommendation of several futurists. It was a form of escape and I did enjoy the fun aspects of listening to the blues with others in a bar every day and exploring SL, and doing things I could never do in real life. But, I tired of it after a while having extracted as much learning as I could. It’s mostly defunct now I think. Perhaps most preferred real life as I do.