Tech is bad, nature is good

For a long time, we've been reading stories and books about how things mediated through technology are bad and being out in the natural real world is great.

(We've also had stories about how dangerous the wilderness can be, of course. I'm not saying all stories are like this; just that it's a recurring theme.)

And in recent decades, we've had movies about how things mediated through technology are bad and being out in the natural real world is great—movies that, lately, have usually required a great deal of CGI to make, and that are distributed over the Internet, and that we watch on high-tech devices in our living rooms without leaving the house.

I wonder if ten or twenty years from now, we'll have immersive VR stories about how things mediated through technology are bad and being out in the natural real world is great, stories we'll experience while lying in VR tanks with no other sensory input.

I bet when we're all uploaded machine consciousnesses, we'll experience hyperrealistic simulations about how things mediated through technology are bad and being out in the natural real world is great.

We sure do like that trope.

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