Udeme Ekong, a PhD in artificial intelligence, is developing an idea based on "social capital".

"It's like a twist on charity, where people are paid to provide value to the economy. (It can be) something as simple as reading a book, (that presents a different perspective from one's own view). It could be like a points-based system. You reach out to the elderly, you get some points." In other words people could be awarded points, convertible into currency, even for volunteerism, for contributing to the community.

Rizwan Virk, author of the Amazon best-seller, The Simulation Hypothesis, says there's already a precedent for a real economy in virtual reality.

"There is precedent with jobs in Second Life (a 3D virtual world computer game) where people earn money in virtual currency (lindens) for performing tasks in a virtual world," said Virk, "Also, in MMORPGs (Massively multiplayer online role-playing games), like World of Warcraft and Counterstrike: Global Offensive, where players farm virtual gold or earn virtual items and then resell those to other players for real money. This wasn't encouraged (inside the games) but virtual worlds encouraged trading of goods and services using built-in virtual currency."

So how could this virtual currency become cash in the real world? Virk continued, "We could see the same kinds of things happening in VR virtual worlds." First the games would require the numbers to become scalable, and the virtual currency would have to be liquid, like today's banknotes. "With the rise of crypto currencies like bitcoin and ethereum, you could see these being the basis of payments in future virtual worlds, because they already have enough liquidity to allow for conversion to "real world" fiat currencies.

There's lots of scary stuff that's just "out there": solar flares (CMEs) wiping out every electrical system, asteroid strikes which some scientists say could end life on Earth. The moon is shrinking and might fall apart someday. But there are a lot of people who think the scariest specter is the fear of being replaced by a robot.