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"I feel like I've been very fortunate in that I've stuck like a burr to the dog-leg of the next generation of nerdism. I've been carried into the XXIth century on Bill Gates' pants-cuff."
- William Gibson
 |
| Virtual Childrearing | ||
| Learn childcare the virtual way; maybe long distance childcare, too. |
Did you ever have the feeling that game design was in too few hands? Consider this possibility.
In this passage, Gaia and her friends are sharing a virtual reality space from widely separated locations. The narrator, her husband, is watching her in the real world, in their needle-gym.
| Naturally, I couldn't see or hear Gaia's companions --presumably other women
gatherers in the same simulated tribe she had been visiting since years before
we met. She stopped again, listening, then turned around. "It's your baby,
Flower. That's okay, I'll take care of him." She laughed. "I need the practice."
I watched her gently pick up an invisible child. Her body suit tugged and contracted, mimicking a wriggly weight in her arms. Awkwardly, Gala cooed at an infant who dwelled only in a world of software, and her mind. I crept away to take a shower, at once ashamed of spying and glad that I had. |
| From Natulife,
by David Brin. Published by Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1994 Additional resources -
|
In reading this, it's clear that Gaia can get practice in caring for this baby in a virtual environment. But is this virtual baby the avatar of a real child, whose virtual reality suit is now feeding back Gaia's care to him or her?
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'A worker replaced by a nubot... had to be compensated.'
'... forcing the energy transfer which allowed him to regrow his lost fingers.'
'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.'
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.'
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.'
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
