Of course you’re right. What I wrote was an insult to monkeys. What I was actually referring to was the quote from Jefferson Lister who said “not until a machine can write a sonnet or compose a concerto because of thoughts and emotions felt, and not by the chance fall of symbols, could we agree that machine equals brain.”

I read somewhere that there are researchers working on virtual aromas. Something to the effect of hooking up a box to your computer that would be activated depending on the website you visit. Again though, how could anything ever replace the sheer bliss that is sipping wine in a tasting room crammed with other sweaty drunks demanding their next free taste? Or are those just the wineries I frequent?

I’ll take you up on that glass tho!

The Banging Monkeys Writing Hamlet are a bit different than Artificial Intelligence, which is different than emulating sensory input. But perhaps you and I could enjoy this discussion sometime over a glass of the next vintage of *%#&@! Non-virtually!

- j, who is also sad because he can’t get any Capozzi Pinot!

Seriously though, nothing will ever replace the human element or the experience of actually tasting a profoundly delicious wine. El Jefe is just acting all incredulous because his *%#&@! is just such a wine.

As for artificial intelligence, I think that a machine will always fail the consciousness test. A monkey banging away incessantly on a typewriter for a millennia might someday randomly come up with something that passes for one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, but it will never, ever produce Hamlet.

Long story long, Second Life and what will follow will be extremely innocuous. Nothing to fear here. :0

If we keep this up we’ll have to call this the Pinotbloggerbloggerforum…

Regarding Wine 2.0, in general. It was okay. I would have preferred if it was more of a wine blog dorkfest (card carrying member), though.

This question can of course be extended to other sensory experiences… and if so, would we continue to actually eat? To procreate?

As these technologies are perfected to the point that the virtual cannot be distinguished from reality (call it a Turbo Turing Test), there is potential to do both great good and great evil. I guess that’s what is scary.

That’s a lot of food for thought. I need to go find some wine for thought to pair with it…

Thanks for the comment and for dropping by.

I hope it isn’t too scary of a future. I’m not saying that some crazy virtual tasting room is going to replace our planned real one - like, ever. It’s just another way to collaborate that is more like the actual 3D world we inhabit every day.

Great feedback tho - thanks!

Great shots. I need to get up to Calaveras and do a proper tasting…

Ryan,

Thats great feedback. What freaked you out most? The fact that people actually spend large periods of time dressing and interacting in a fake world? :p Yeah it is all a little strange.

But everything new is!

However, I’ll admit that the future you describe scares me a little. I like to think that everything we do online we do to better our real lives. I hope that doesn’t change. I still like drinking wines with friends and visiting tasting rooms.