In his book Reality+ David Chalmers says the material world may lose its allure as VR technology advances.

Advances in technology will deliver virtual worlds that rival and then surpass the physical realm.

Renowned for articulating “the hard problem” of consciousness – which inspired Tom Stoppard’s play of the same name – Chalmers sees technology reaching the point where virtual and physical are sensorily the same and people live good lives in VR.

“The virtual worlds we’re interacting with can be as real as our ordinary physical world.

With advances in computing – in the next century, perhaps – those worlds would seem as real as the physical world around us.

“In the short term we’re pretty clearly going to be based in physical reality and I certainly wouldn’t recommend abandoning it,” Chalmers says.

As fulfilling as virtual worlds may become, people will need real food, drink and exercise, and perhaps even the odd glimpse of daylight, to keep their bodies from withering away.

And if the physical world becomes dangerously degraded – by environmental collapse, nuclear war or an interminable pandemic – VR could offer a safe haven, he says.

In October, Facebook rebranded as Meta, reflecting its ambition to dominate the “metaverse”, the virtual world it wants people to work and play in.

It is unlikely everyone will turn to VR, and some people, Chalmers says, will still value sheer physicality

Given all the ways in which virtual worlds may surpass the nonvirtual world, life in virtual worlds will often be the right life to choose.”