Generally these days, when we think of virtualisation, we think of it in the context of IT infrastructure. But the notion of virtualisation goes far beyond servers and storage, and has profound cultural and economic ramifications. We’re becoming increasingly disassociated from our physical environments, and in many cases, I don’t think we realise it.

The symptoms of this disassociation can be very explicit. Most recently, two Korean parents were sentenced after letting their baby daughter starve to death while they busied themselves playing online games. They neglected the real world, while immersing themselves in a virtual one.

Most discussions of those who live too much online focus on the obvious issues: gaming addition, a preoccupation with cybersex, or an unhealthy obsession with Facebook. It’s easy to point out that many of us speak to more people on Facebook in a day than we speak to in real life. All of these are well-made points, but they’re only part of a broader issue.

The pervasive nature of virtualisation also affects our economy and society in broader ways. Our supply chains are so virtual that we can switch suppliers thousands of milles away in an instant. The virtualisation of our housing by interpreting it in terms of credit default swaps led us to forget how much they were really worth, and when someone realised that, it tanked the economy.

Tech can bring us wonderful benefits. It enables me to speak to my children and see and hear them, even when I am in a different city. I can pick the brains of a large community of extremely smart people, without leaving my chair. And every time I turn on my Mac, I’m bathed in new ideas. It’s the most intellectually stimulating place on the planet.

But in acknowledging all that, we must also acknowledge the downsides. Virtualisation involves the abstraction of the logical from the physical. In that sense, it naturally tends to alienate us from our physical environments, and with that, comes a sense that we have forgotten how to live in the moment. I worry that younger generations in particular, as plugged-in as they are, will lose this.

Eventually I think the pendulum will swing back to a point where we rediscover the value of the physical. But in the meantime, I hope that in the meantime, an over-reliance on technology at the expense of engagement with our environment won’t leave us spiritually bankrupt.

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