The last few days, I’ve been doing something I haven’t done for a long time - really getting into an playing a video game.  Specifically, this new game called Zelda: Breath of the Wild.  Yes, they’re still making Zelda games.  This one has been getting some amazing reviews - a 97 score from Meteoritic, which puts it up there with the best of all time.  In particular, this game is what has been referred to as an “open world” game.  That is, unless like old video games where things happened one after another, in this game, the world really has been designed to feel like an actual world.  You can go anywhere you like (well, until you hit the end of the world), do anything you like.  There’s a story, yes, but in the meantime you can mess around chopping down trees, building fires, cooking, etc., etc.  Of course there’s programmed limits to the realism, but it’s one of those games where there are some moments where you really think “this is an actual place”.  And that’s why I think humanity is doomed.

Some of you know thatI work in Virtual reality.  The company I work for makes these game rooms; spaces you can inhabit and play board games in.  In a very limited but very visceral sense, these spaces feel real.  Of course you can’t touch anything, smell anything, taste anything.  But given how far we’ve come in just the last 10 years, I have no doubt all those things are on the horizon - if we want them bad enough.

Simultaneous with this new adventure in fake places, the real places have started to feel really unhelpful.  There’s been so much negativity in the real world lately.  After an encouraging period during which things like tolerance, meditation and yoga seemed to be picking up speed, we’ve hit some serious speed bumps.

And maybe I’m just feeling cynical today, but I hope we remember, as a species, that we have to fix this world we have.  We have to live in this real world.  There is no space planet we can colonize, and no virtual reality will save us.  We have to live with our fellow humans.  We have to touch, and love, and get out there and surf, and run, and have picnics, and enjoy this beautiful world.  And then, of course, we have to preserve it, and keep it nice for ourselves, for our kids, and for our neighbors.

Video games are great, but nothing beats the sound of real waves on a real shore.  No amount of programming can replace that.