"Houston, we have a problem - Digital Immigrants...everywhere!"
Three events of significance occurred during the years 2017 - 2020. NASA announced the discovery of a possible life sustaining planetary system with no less than 3 Earth sized planets that could support life. This raises the important question, "Are we alone?"
The next event was deeply disturbing and very unfortunate. The killing of a man, simply for choosing to live on a certain part of the planet, where another man thinks he has no right to.
Following that news, my Facebook feed was filled with comments from people who were seriously thinking about moving back "to their native land", tired of having to keep a look out over their shoulders for hate motivated crime waiting to happen.
The third event was christened: The Covid-19 Pandemic. It kickstarted a serious Work from Home movement that's refusing to away, much to the chagrin of many CEOs. It also cemented the viability of Remote work. The Covid-19 event will forever be in all history books and overshadow perhaps, NASA's significant discovery, mentioned above.
Which brings up a Question:
"What use are physical borders and visas, to Digital Immigrants?"
Who are Digital Immigrants?
A Digital Immigrant can be described as a person who can bypass the need for crossing physical borders and can "work" and "earn" without needing to be physically present in the country of employment. This are many similarities with nuanced differenced from the covid19 era popularized term "Digital Nomad"
While it might sound far-fetched, It is not. The Microsoft Hololens v.1 in the image above shows us what's possible. - They have a term for it, Holoportation.
Microsoft already has a Hololens version 2 now of this device.
Davinci Robotic Surgical System: View video on YouTube
Teletravel and Telepresence:
Robots can be controlled from either 5 feet away, or across the world if need be as seen in the video above. A skilled surgeon while (s)he might be in high demand and not have immigration problems, is STILL AT RISK of being victimized by a section of the human sub-species as can be seen from the recent hate motivated killing.
Remote surgery can be performed by a highly skilled Digital Immigrant (a surgeon remotely operating) . While this is an extreme case scenario it should set the ground for other less life-and-death critical jobs that can be outsourced to Digital Immigrants.
...and they will be.
Consider this: Wearing devices such as the Hololens and indeed, the numerous other Mixed Reality devices coming on to the market, real people will be able to see and interact with a Digital Immigrant, right at their physical place of work.
I also consider myself a Digital Immigrant. A significant part of my earnings come from a places other than where I'm resident, due to the nature of my work (writing, VR filmmaking).
An amusing yet ironic moment did happen when a Virtual Reality consortium said, I'd need to be physically present to "attend" a meeting to qualify as a member.
BPO 2.0- like you've never seen:
In my hard scifi novel "Memories with Maya" (republished by Penguin books in 2015) a near future prophesy looks like it might actually come true.
The then US President's 2017 moves affected the immigration and dreams of many non-US citizens over the world and in India. Attaining Digital Immigrant status, might lead to asking less favors from the Gods.
Praying at the 'Visa Temple' in India: View the Video on Youtube
The Metaverse: An Oasis for Digital Immigrants?
Perhaps hard science and motivated technology companies (who certainly have skin in the game) like Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft will in the year 2022, accelerate development of "Digital Surrogate" technology to allow nations such as India, Mexico, and those in South East Asia to delve into an age of BPO 2.0 which might give rise to the age of Digital Immigration?
Your thoughts...
