Even before whole-brain simulations come along, it should be possible to create extremely realistic experiences via virtual reality. In the short term this would involve visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli that mimic the experience. Eventually it might involve direct stimulation of the brain to create such sensations.

In addition to allowing for immensely pleasurable experiences, VR would enable extremely awful experiences, especially since pain could be inflicted without risk of permanent bodily damage. (Quite possibly permanent mental damage, though, until technology comes along to erase the mental footprints of the experience.)

Examples of how hellish VR might be (mis)used:

• Hazing rituals: You can join our fraternity if you go through "virtual hell week," involving burning in a lake of fire.
• Peer pressure: All the cool kids are putting themselves through hell as a signal of their toughness. You're a wimp if you don't do it.
• Accident: People think they want to try hell not knowing how bad it would be. Hopefully there's an emergency "off" button.
• Software bugs/malfunction: The program was supposed to stimulate brain region X to generate pleasure but instead stimulates region Y and generates agony.
• Hacked VRs: Sadists hack into someone's VR and turn on terrible experiences.
• Torture: Used against political prisoners, people being interrogated, criminals, etc. This could be especially prevalent in less democratic countries.

Hopefully market and legal pressures would prevent some of these from getting too out of hand. Torture is probably the most sinister use, especially if the world became more authoritarian than it is now.

It's also worth pointing out that because VR taps into existing human brain wiring, the worst possible experiences would be much worse than the best possible experiences, even if the same might not be true for de novo minds.

Fortunately, because the VR I described operates on biological brains, its magnitude would be limited. Indeed, if VR were only used for humans, then the scenarios I describe would still probably be less important than factory farming, wild-animal suffering, etc. on Earth alone.

Brian Tomasik wrote:It's also worth pointing out that because VR taps into existing human brain wiring, the worst possible experiences would be much worse than the best possible experiences, even if the same might not be true for de novo minds.

The upside is that people in VR don't need pain or cold or noxious heat etc. to protect their bodies. VR would prevent all suffering from accidents and crime that would occur in real-world analogies.

If there is ever a post-Singularity stage where many people live in VR only, from cradle to grave, it's possible that physical suffering is edited out of their design completely. This is harder if you still have real biological (irreplacable) bodies moving through real space. Even wars in the future could consist of drones fighting it out on command or by AI, without suffering.

Brian Tomasik wrote:Examples of how hellish VR might be (mis)used:

• Hazing rituals: You can join our fraternity if you go through "virtual hell week," involving burning in a lake of fire.
• Peer pressure: All the cool kids are putting themselves through hell as a signal of their toughness. You're a wimp if you don't do it.
• Accident: People think they want to try hell not knowing how bad it would be. Hopefully there's an emergency "off" button.

These three examples are true of existing torture devices. The fact that such is not prevalent is somewhat reassuring.