You think a lot about what other people have. You think about how they have money that you don’t, or screw hot chicks and you don’t, or how you have twenty pounds of ass fat that they don’t. At grocery checkouts this tendency is at its most garish. Think about it: what fucking sensible reason is there for anyone to buy People or Us?
People have a hell of a time changing things about themselves – that’s no secret. Want to be as hot as Brad Pitt? For most of us it’s not going to happen, at any price and through any effort. But what if it could? What if you could look like Brad Pitt instantly? And then, the next instant, you could look like George Clooney? Or whoever. If you make the scarce resource not scarce anymore, what would that mean for attraction, status, and desire?
I’ve been thinking about this for a story I’m writing. It strikes me that the closest you can get to answering that question (and yes, I realize it’s not close at all) is in online virtual worlds. You can make your avatar whatever you want. You can look however you want. Physical apperance doesn’t matter, or at least, it fails to matter in that way. Maybe it matters in other ways that don’t have to do with scarcity, or with other kinds of scarcity. Someone who plays these games will have to tell me.
But I’m trying to imagine what life would be like if we could physically remake ourselves completely. It’s a tough thing to imagine. Let me know if you have any ideas.