Do we already live in a virtual reality?

I just finished reading The Futurological Congress, and I can confidently say it was the most bizarre novel I have ever experienced. Lem’s style takes the reader through an intense stream of consciousness first-person narrative by the protagonist, Ijon Tichy. The nonsensical arrangements of images and events make the distinctions between reality and illusion impossible to identify. This struggle to identify reality, however, is shared by both the reader and the protagonist. Neither is ever completely sure where reality ends and illusion begins. This sets up a reliability complex where neither the narrator nor his counterparts can be trusted.

Lem offers a terrifying alternative to a utopian future that is strikingly similar to the movie The Matrix. Both works reveal a world only lived through simulation—where concrete reality barely exists, and we only perceive life through our imaginations. While both works are extreme examples of what may come of our world, we are beginning to see hints at this future through our consumption of technology today.

Today, children might be tempted to play Wii tennis instead of going outside. Lonely bachelors might log on to a virtual life online to connect with other “people.” I recently saw a special about technological therapy, where people in rehabilitation centers were encouraged to walk slowly on a treadmill while a virtual reality of beautiful forests was presented around them. Currently, these virtual realities can do a lot of harm and good. Lem, however, might argue that virtual realities are only dangerous and can lead to the disastrous circumstances he described in The Futurological Congress.