My hope as well. If AI doesn't kill us all, the real world, with all its dirt and grime and beauty, will become the only thing that can be trusted

I've thought about this a lot as well and could definitely see it happening.

The issue is that the physical world for someone in the hinterlands of Tibet is not the same as the physical world for someone in SF.

People were finding each other online when they couldn’t in person.

This isn’t to say I disagree with you. Just expressing sorrow over the loss of such a grand moment in our shared history.