Goodnight moon

David, a member of our research team, is working on a beautiful and inviting VR room. Today we all tried it out.

Imagine that you are in the book Goodnight Moon, except that it is a real place, and you can actually go up to the window, and look outside to see the moon and the stars. It was like that.

Taking off the headset was a bit of a shock. Suddenly you’re back in the harsh realm of reality, without no lovely storybook fireplace, or cozy little bed or night table.

After emerging back into the real world I said, to nobody in particular, “I hated to leave that place.”

One of the students nodded her head and said, “Yes I know. I could have just stayed in there all day.”

I thought about that for a moment, and then I said to the students, “Maybe this is it, right here. The beginning of the end for humanity.”

They knew exactly what I meant.

4 thoughts on “Goodnight moon”

  1. I know what you mean, in trying various AR/VR things, they are seductive.

    But I have no desire to stay in the land of the “bowl full of mush.” I hated that book as a child – this is an aside of course – it seemed that the book was written to be so boring that it would actually put people to sleep.

    Maybe what you are *really* after is a reduced and simpler environment. No piles of papers to read and grade. Remember those sensory depravation tanks? Maybe you’re after a “sensory reduction” tank.

  2. It remembers me this Ray Bradbury’s novel, The Veldt :
    “Don’t let them switch off the nursery and the house,” he was saying.

    It’s funny how science-fiction is able to percieve sometimes very precisely the flaws of the human psyche and how we’re likely to respond to new technological context.

    Oh well, I imagine we’ll have to check this by ourselves.

  3. Richard: Yeah, I know what you mean.
    Sally: Yes, I think that is exacty it.
    George: Fortunately, our VR has not yet evolved far enough to eat people.

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