Don's blog inspired me.  We often look at technology, especially advanced technology to be riddled with fears and anxieties.  While it is fair for Don to question what would/will happen when our robot technology becomes so advanced that it borders on gaining consciousness. 

Many often mention Star Trek when they speak of real life technological advancements.  Some of the most absurd dreams from the 60's have since come true, so why limit our dreams.

One of the greatest episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation was called, "The Inner Light."  In the episode, Captain Picard is rendered unconscious, unresponsive and immovable on the bridge of the Enterprise as a beam of light is streaming into his head.  Inside his mind however, we see the Captain's new consciousness as he is immersed into what is essentially the story of a dying planet.  He has his own memory and is fully conscious of who he is, but everyone else in the "story" believes him to be someone else.  The captain, who never had a family of his own, now had a wife and children.  He was a scientist on a planet that his character claimed was dying.  In his mind, he lives out an entire lifetime as this person, eventually forgetting he was Captain Picard and embracing his new life.  He lives for decades until his predictions of his planet meeting its demise come to pass.  When he dies, the story ends, and he awakens back on the bridge of the Enterprise.  He has lived out an entire lifetime...in only a matter of minutes of real time.  The dying civilization had built this little "storytelling device" as a means of having travelers learn of their people that were now deceased for thousands of years.

We have heard dreams of virtual reality quests, and it would seem we inch closer and closer.  Imagine though if we could create something like this "Inner Light" machine.  Imagine the ramifications, both good and bad if we could in merely a few minutes explore another lifetime.  Would we ever need a vacation again?  Could something like this tear marriages apart, or could it bring lovers closer together, getting to experience the varieties in life whose seeds of curiosity often start us down the wrong path.  Perhaps we could advance our education exponentially helping to advance the rest of the world.  Imagine the incredible power unleashed if one culture/country developed something like this and used it to advance the intelligence and civilization of their culture so far past everyone else's.

The permutations and repurcussions are literally endless.