FUTURE CRAFTING
The Game of Life
On COVID-19 and The Matrix
There’s lurking anxiety in people’s hearts. “What if this never ends?” Countless articles cropped up over the past few months theorizing what a future of living in the shadow of COVID-19 might look like. What permanent changes to our lifestyles should we prepare for? If we find a cure, what does the aftermath look like? Do we scramble back to our daily lives, balance mourning the dead with a 9–5?
One outcome worth considering is the shift to virtual living. I’m not talking about more reliable Zoom meetings or better virtual doctor appointments.
I’m talking about living in a video game: a world where we interact like in real life, but without physically being there.
Imagine you wake up, go through your morning routine, and then sit down at your desk. Instead of opening your laptop and checking your email, you pull a comfortable, lightweight Virtual Reality (VR) headset over your head.
As you press back into your chair, you log in and see a digital version of yourself, a persona. You “click” on your character and spawn in your house in the World. A menu…
