[wnhhiiqk] Real life simulator

One of the most interesting disruptive technologies on the horizon are interactive computer simulators of real life situations involving other people.  They allow a person to learn to act in a certain way, and to repeatedly practice it until it becomes second nature.

Nowadays simulators already exist, often at very high price, for things like flight simulators and surgical simulators.  We predict the price coming down and simulators being developed for many other situations. The disruptive applications will be simulators for social situations, requiring the computer to realistically simulate other human characters in a situation for you to interact with, as well as the computer observing, interpreting, and reacting to your behavior as another human would.  Sort of using the Turing Test as a subroutine.

Less controversial: Learning a foreign language through simulated immersion in a culture, doctors learning bedside manner.

More controversial: Learning to deceive, to manipulate, to intimidate (or to not be intimidated), to gaslight, to be deceptive in courtship rituals.  The last item is the technological continuation of the Pick Up Artist genre for which mere books already arouse huge amounts of furor.  What if the training got even better?

Previously: the challenge of learning to act normal, to blend in. Another similar deception is learning to "play the fool", pretending you do not understand or that you have no idea what is going on, in order to extract information or deny involvement.