What is the probability of such a utopian society going its entire existence without at least one group of individuals with the resources to go out into the universe pulling the trigger on the decision to risk their lives?
This ofcourse requires some projection of our ideas of happiness onto unknown alien beings, but then why not also project boredom? If anything, we have seen that nothing in nature really stays the same. It is ever changing and evolving.
When I predict that VR will trump reality I never mean to imply a virtual happy Utopia or that such a thing was inevitable. Our future might be a virtual dystopia for all I know, but virtual reality is my bet where most intelligent beings end up going. I think virtual worlds > reality would explain the Fermi paradox nicely.
So religious conservatives who don't like VR will be the ones to go into space, or whatever you'd like to imagine. Just by sheer probability there should be at least a few individuals who don't end up sticking around the sun.
This ofcourse requires some projection of our ideas of happiness onto unknown alien beings, but then why not also project boredom? If anything, we have seen that nothing in nature really stays the same. It is ever changing and evolving.