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Ah, I see this is getting some love from the HN crowd. Very interested to hear people's opinions and very, very interested in original research that covers any of the topics mentioned.
You might also be interested in Nicholas Carr's blog, he writes about similar things. I think it is worth following it, if only as a contrast to the tech-utopianism of HN: http://www.roughtype.com/index.php
Heh, and then come along malware authors, spammers and scammers. I doubt virtual worlds will be entire free of danger; just as it's possible to break a leg through stupidity, I imagine it'll still be just as easy to delete C:\Windows ;)
As for offered books, I think hardcovers will become the tokens; for example, for Cory Doctorow's With a Little Help (which I've never read), the hardcover edition comes with an SD card with the ebook and even a audiobook.
And the reality is that at least for me, only one in ten books or so actually have any meaning besides the content; most are just books I bought for myself for no special occasion, and I don't really benefit from the space they take.
Real worlds are filled with dirt, hazards, sensation, pleasure, effort and more. The virtual world is clean, colourful, free of danger and effortless. Heh, and then come along malware authors, spammers and scammers. I doubt virtual worlds will be entire free of danger; just as it's possible to break a leg through stupidity, I imagine it'll still be just as easy to delete C:\Windows ;)
In the real world, you feel the snakebite or the hot stove burner. When approached by a stranger or walking through an unknown neighborhood, thousands of years of predator-prey evolution gives you the feeling that something is wrong and you should flee.
We haven't evolved these levels of intuition for the virtual world. I can open a harmless looking email and infect my home network with a virus and never know it happened. I can't reliably tell if the person I'm chatting with is a predator or a friend.
If the physical world is being 'lost' then an alternative cause (in the UK at least) might be the amount of it available per person because of increased densities of living.
Wolfram Alpha shows: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=uk+population+density
2011 - 663 people per square mile
1911 - 425 people per square mile
Actually, the virtual world is highly dangerous: the life-long risks of sedentary inactivity are well understood. From a risk management perspective, I'll take the dangers of the real world any day.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might also be interested in Nicholas Carr's blog, he writes about similar things. I think it is worth following it, if only as a contrast to the tech-utopianism of HN: http://www.roughtype.com/index.php
To me, Carr mostly comes across as trolling.
But there is some truth in it. In a way, in our quest for efficiency, comfort and safety, we are losing touch with nature, and even with the physical world. I feel that as we become more dependent on technology we become more like domesticated pets of "the machine".
Some quick reactions: To have a fair discussion, you would have to look at both the problems and benefits of losing physicality. There is a danger of clinging on it to it purely for nostalgia, which I think is largely the case with books. My hunch is that kids' imagination will actually expand with virtual worlds. Another advantage is they will be better educated. Like my wife says, "I wish I had Google when I was a…
Real worlds are filled with dirt, hazards, sensation, pleasure, effort and more. The virtual world is clean, colourful, free of danger and effortless. Heh, and then come along malware authors, spammers and scammers. I doubt virtual worlds will be entire free of danger; just as it's possible to break a leg through stupidity, I imagine it'll still be just as easy to delete C:\Windows ;)