This page needs major re-editing to add in coherency and a lucid train of thought.
The experience of watching a high-resolution reality-based VR may also cause some to have a religious or existential crisis as they view themselves as, like the moons of Jupiter or finches living on the Galapagos Islands, a physical entity within the physical Universe. Some might even being to fully appreciate that what they perceived to be their Gid-given mind is strictly the result of neurological processes and that much of our active mind, notably our emotions, operates in an unconscious and irrational manner. Our laws (Code of Hammurabi, Ten Commandments, etc.) manage our free will and individuality.
People who view for the first time a thick carpet of data that has been created about their neighborhoods might feel vulnerable and think it to be creepy. That feeling is a natural reaction from having evolved in the forest where such knowledge was not available. It is akin to suddenly seeing the bowels of your ape-man neighborhood being exposed by a predator and having the sudden urge to run away. It is also analogous to stage fright, because if that data carpet is presented freely on the Internet, then potentially all 6 billion living people can instantly zero in on you. It is a conditioned behavior one can suppress, as say, surgeons do when they do not faint at the sight of blood and any person can control in situations such as public speaking (perhaps after a few years with Toastmasters).
The Internet is may be making a much larger fraction of American citizens public figures. That has implications for issues of privacy and two-way societal transparency for almost all of us. It is a major shift in our society and it has benefits and risks and implications for our everyday lifestyle. The Internet is developing enough online content in the form of books and videos to make regular libraries more scarce. The Internet can be used to learn about real life. Many people, especially young people, want more information now. These concessions in privacy might soon become more profound. It is up to those who choose to be the leaders in this privacy-sacrificing activity, but there is much to be gained. Those concessions in privacy might include using their real identities on the Internet, releasing there exact locations and floor plans of their living and working spaces if they live in neighborhoods or campuses with an adequate police force, sharing the innermost hopes and dreams in a very trusting way (sometimes called "too much information" by friends who reject such behavior), publishing their genotypes when they become available and even posting pictures of themselves nude without shame, embarrassment or fear. That would not, of course, mean giving up ones genuine security codes such as PIN's for the ATM or passwords, but it would mean allowing others to engage you in dialog to some degree. Today's younger online users will maintain some nostalgia for older traditions of privacy while imbued with a spirit of bold curiosity for the adventure ahead.
It is up to the individual to responsibly distinguish between reality and the Internet. For instance, if you wanted to go into the Palo Alto Court House (I will forgo naming specific judges for the moment) and making some trouble, you would be much better off doing that in VR than in real life(IRL). It is normal to think such thoughts every now and then, but here is what it might look like IRL. Just sad and ugly (so, if you must, play it out in VR to get it out of your system and then stop thinking about it). In Episode 409 of CSI Miami entitled "Urban Hellraisers" some dumb guys who play a violent out bank-robber video games too much try it in real life. The point to remember is that CSI Miami is fiction and the bank-robbery video game is fiction. In the context of the CSI fiction, the dumb guys descended into nihilism, rather than agnosticism. Note that CSI fiction is just media fluff.
Knowing one's neighbors better might be compared to being simply more aware of one's surrounds or it might be compared to agents that cause a loss of myelin in the the brain or a loss of insulation in electric circuits in that citizens might see beyond a tunnel vision of simply cycling between home and work and consider much else of the world around them to be merely a distraction. This extra information provided on Web 2.0 sites such as MySpace have already, at times, been used by law enforcement. Some might find having less privacy to be stressful.
With a high-rez AR/VR, it might, at first look dangerous and titillating, but you would get used to it. You would see yourself in that VR. You would want to try to become what the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts aspire to and actually try to help others when appropriate. It might also have the feeling of living inside a hippie commune or just a friendly small town. There would still be gossip and such, but that might not be so bad. There might still be anonymous users who know a bit about you, but if they are not interesting to you, you can just ignore them or maybe block them out.
Even if you zoom into a person's private parts, it quickly becomes with more zoom not very sexy. That is a very important thing to notice. It tells you something about the world in which we exist. It reminds you that we are made of molecules, just as inanimate matter is. You are confronted with the real world and the real people around you. If you zoom in and out enough, it might gently lead you towards leanings of becoming agnostic because it bleeds away emotional notions of religion. It might also prompt you to review your own ideas about privacy and trust. It would not necessarily drain the world around us of its beauty, but it would present us with its full complexity. It might even prompt one to join the brights. Will Wright's Spore game emphasizes this zooming.
Wikipedia wants to provide the world with the sum total of human knowledge, but for legal reasons, the project cuts itself off at public figures or "notable" people. Its vague, emotional-laden notions of dispute resolution lead to many mistakes in how the content is managed, where who the author is becomes even more important than the content itself. Dualities such as "the project" vs. "the community", or simple analogies such as whether its environment should be more like a library or a saloon emerge. Its monarch recently presented Wikipedia as adhering to American values, but I found it necessary to disagree in my 2007 message to Senator Lieberman. His Majesty continues to un-majestically chase after the Emmanuel Goldsteins that haunt his unconscious because he wants to fulfill his personal agenda by controlling his powerful communications network more than he ever wanted to share all information. One only has to look at how he is now following the lead of his own special version of Patricia Dunn, namely Sue Gardner to see the parallels. See also The While House Plumbers or The Troubles at HP. Parallels with Scientology too numerous to review here. See also Andy with a blond wig on. Of course, Carlton does not smoke Carltons or any other tobacco because her NNDB profile would tell me if she had that risk factor. When you compare hers with Andy's, Carlton has no risk factors and Andy has many. The Internet is a variety/comedy show.
Rather than look away and say it is none of your business, it encourages you to use your mind and make the future your business. The film does not ask you to get to like or compete with or interact with the people; it asks you to see larger patterns. One still has to remember to love Mankind and, after addressing our own basic needs, act wisely on Mankind's behalf. You cannot do that if you live in a world of TV, animation, CGI, soap operas, fake "reality TV" shows and other forms of make-believe entertainment.
Why not just list both home and workplace locations? Like NNDB, why not list known sexual partners, or at least those that resulted in live births? Why not attempt to reduce the stigma for adult women for them to volunteer information about abortions they have had; even recent ones. If nothing else, those who might require abortions in the future might be able to recognize how common an occurrence abortions are among one's friends and also perhaps better prepare oneself to learn from such mistakes and take proper steps to avoid needing yet more later on in life. You might find it necessary to operate some servers overseas, such as in smaller countries such as Poland or Ireland if legal liability was a concern.
In a low-privacy society, we would still know how to be kind, as long as we are not on the defensive. If Maddy were more familiar with the Bible she would know that the caption for the photo of the Boy and Bunny commercial poster, "Be Ye Kind", is from Ephesians 4:32. On EBay, you can find a green velvet embossed plaque with pink and white rose with the entire quote: Be Ye Kind, Tenderhearted, Forgiving Others as God forgave you. I danced with Maddy went she visited Buffalo and performed at http://www.tralfmusichall.com/ in 1983. Maddy has been at it for over 30 years and the Internet allows herself to express her art more intimately.
Notions such as privacy and religion, emotions such as irrational anxiety are like the film Brazil, only a state of mind; such a low-privacy society might still be safe and stable. Internet gossip: Are my neighbors be able to get to know me better by coming over and saying Hello or by trying to find out information about me online? Is the nature of their gossip about me online? Do they love me in a fraternal (or paternal or maternal) or romantic or erotic way or are they just socially competing with me? For the American public to see themselves in such a third-person manner might cause some to have a real first-person emotional personal crisis or at least a case of stage fright as they realize that this possible destiny of our near-future society.