The habit of insisting that the virtual life is somehow not part of real life has diminished with time. Few people regard, say, online magazines as fake magazines anymore. And more than one politician has been felled by a scandal involving sex that was purely digital. So even though it wasn’t physical, it must have been real. Right?…
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/arts/video-games/madden-nfl-25-portrays-real-football.html?_r=1&
You can yell, “Beam me up, Scotty!” all you want, the only thing that will happen is you’ll elicit a bunch of bemused stares from passersby wondering if you’ve bonked your head recently. The sad fact is human teleportation devices don’t yet exist in 2013, and even if they did, the tremendous lag would make it extraordinarily impractical. Such is the reality of science that it doesn’t always mesh with our fantastic visions of fictional futures filled with flying cars and other implausible technologies. In other words, reality sucks compared to what we’ve grown up watching on television.
That doesn’t mean Hollywood got it all wrong, however. Take a look around you and you’ll notice quite a few inventions that not only don’t suck, but some of which were predicted by movie makers decades ago…
https://www.maximumpc.com/movies_predicted_technology_right_2013
A man who had appeared to have been in a vegetative state for 12 years knew his name and knew where he was, Canadian researchers report in a study showing it’s possible to use MRI brain scans to establish communication with people who seem completely unconscious.
Three people tested using a special form of MRI called functional magnetic resonance imaging were able to answer simple “yes” or “no” questions, the team at Western University in London, Ontario report.
They say their findings don’t mean everyone in a coma or a persistent vegetative state is conscious, but it should help doctors find out who is and who isn’t…