Comfortable illusions will always be more popular than objective reality. This is why Star Trek will never be any more than science fiction. The Matrix is so much easier to build than an intergalactic starship so we'll all just end up in there, sleeping our lives away in an eternal video game. We'll be observed so closely and continuously by the system that when we die, an artificial replicant will take our place and nobody will spot the difference. If another race ever stumbles upon our planet some day, they'll just find a giant computer network talking to itself.