Escape

[Scribbly]

It was the goal that the games industry had been striving towards for as long as anyone could remember. True virtual reality, not 3D, not motion control. Plug yourself in, and be taken to a world of infinite wonder.

It started on the fringes first. Early adopters and geeks leapt at the chance to live out fantasy lives saving (or dooming) the galaxy, saving (or dooming) fantastical empires, questing for beautiful royalty and to earn fame and glory unobtainable in reality.

Eventually it became more mainstream and the technology was found in every home. The advertising purposes were obvious; capture your product at its most perfect, and pump that experience into the brain of the audience. A whole new vista of media opened up, selling emotions. Who could share the most perfect sensation of love? Who knew joy better than anyone else?

The final outcome was inevitable in hindsight.

Again, it started gradually. The first person to decide to live entirely in their virtual world was a scandal. At first it was the rich, the only people who could afford to pay for the machine and the electricity to keep their physical needs cared for without working for the rent and the bills. People sell the best moments of their life, commoditizing their emotions to fund their eventual escape.

Demand grew. The market responded. Automated hotels where you could fit yourself in relatively cheaply sprang up. Pay forward your pension and savings, you could plug yourself in for a hundred years. You'd pass away before you came out again. But why strive for anything else?

If you can't control this world, why not move to one which you can?

The ultimate escape.

[East Coast Hustle]

This is essentially the premise of Tad Williams' Otherland series. If you're into this kind of thing you should give it a read, it's pretty good.