The Future of Communications

https://barryhisblog.blogspot.com/p/the-future-of-communications.html

I used to work in data communications. Late one work night a colleague and I were talking about how real and effective remote communications could get. High-def images and sound. Passing papers to one another via scanning. Then we got to thinking what CAN'T you do? Take a book down from your communication partner's shelf, open it to a page and pass it to them, for example. You cannot manipulate or operate real things in their world from half way across the world.

Then we came up with the thought of machines you could 'inhabit'. Connect to a remote android 'robot' and experience their remote world directly, including being able to manipulate objects in it. Cameras feed into your eyes. Feedback mechanisms let you 'feel' your remote surroundings and artificial limbs are maipulated under your control. To an extent, specialist surgeons already use this sort of technology. I would be very surprised that there are not already military applications too.

The fist time I came across this concept is in an old science fiction story. They are always rich in brilliant, precocious ideas. This story talked about 'waldos' - sophisticated remote-controlled devices allowing for the exploration and manipulation of remote, possibly hazardous environments. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldo_(short_story) Then came the film "Surrogates". The idea that a surrogate user could be murdered via its surrogate or by its controller is rather far-fetched, but then, people can already be driven to suicide by shit people post about them on the internet.

Our power and our responsibilities can reach everywhere.

How long until we get expensive glamorous and high performance surrogate models?