If you could have the perfect, ideal partner for you, but they were a construct of technology, would you still want to be with them?

Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and robotics have been getting more advanced over the years and it is likely that they will one day get to the point where digital programs are indistinguishable from reality.

If such technology could hijack our brains to perceive these virtual worlds and people the same as we perceived real-life, could you see yourself living in this matrix?

Your artificial romantic partner could be tailor made for you with the ideal appearance, values, interests, humor, and personality traits. Everything you ever wanted and needed.

Would your mind change if you were single or unfulfilled in relationships for a long period of time? Even if it meant the possibility of dying alone?

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pknein · 46-50, M

you presume we arent already living in a matrix

TinyViolins · 31-35, M

@pknein I also presume that we're not all puppets controlled by ghosts. This isn't an epistemological debate, but a question about preference

pknein · 46-50, M

@TinyViolins eh.. why stipulate that we'd have to know? if that is the sticking point, and the technology was truly sufficiently advanced that it was veridical, then they would just remove the knowing from the equation...

TinyViolins · 31-35, M

@pknein Because it's a matter of choice. Would you take the blue pill or the red pill? If something is all you've ever known, there's not much of an incentive to change it.

pknein · 46-50, M

alright but what do you think the question, as you posed it (with the stipulation about knowing) actually gets to answering? What do you think the question reveals if someone says yes or no?

TinyViolins · 31-35, M

@pknein It can reveal a lot of things. Different people are motivated by different things. It's not meant to be a Rorschach test, but a matter of what people prefer between two alternatives.