Virtual travel

Is all the world a stage?  And if so, are not only we men and women players, but all other creatures under the sun as well?

A couple of days ago, the New York Times carried a story* about technological advances that permit us to monitor wild beasts in the wild.   Wildlife experts can now use GPS and radio equipped collars to follow and manipulate herds of bighorn sheep; encourage bears and elephants, in their respective areas of habitat, to stay away from human contact; monitor movement and activities of wolves and cougars; and track even birds and fish.

The story was interesting, but I might not have read it but for the sub-headline the Times attached to it: "If technology helps us save the wilderness, will the wilderness still be wild?"  Unfortunately, however, the writer does not really address that question aside from noting:

Like most people, I would miss the un-manipulated wild if it entirely disappeared, and I like a point that Mr. Hebblewhite makes about technological breakthroughs tempting us to overestimate our own cleverness. Even with the latest digital tools, he notes, ecosystems, and specifically the challenge of restoring broken ones, remain profoundly more complex than any phenomenon or system that humans have ever mastered.

In other words, he seems to say, don't worry about it because we can't entirely control everything.  Not yet.

I hate to leave that topic before I even begin to address it, but I need to digress.  This morning's Sunday Times discussed a cool new app that Google is offering, called "Destinations."  Want to go somewhere, but don't know where?  The app, when installed on your phone, will toss a bunch of photos at you of places that the sort of people like you who use this app find appealing.  Paris look good?  Tap its photo, and the app will show you the best flights to get you there, background information about the city ("that metal thing is called the Eiffel Tower"), its climate, etc.  You're not the sort to visit just one city?   No problem.  Destinations will work out an itinerary for you -- hopping around Europe, perhaps..  You can then use the app to book your trip.

I sound supercilious, I realize.  Google admits that Destinations is for the casual traveler, not for folks like us, for whom travel is like breathing and who love to spend hours working out our trips.  But clearly, Destinations  is merely a prototype; soon, the sophisticated traveler will have the tools to work out his visit to Lower Slobbovia in full detail, right down to reviewing the menus offered at each ghastly café along his route.

Both these articles -- as disparate in subject matter as they are -- feed into the same sense of discomfort I feel about where life is heading in our globalized world.  Wildlife management is vital, I grant you.  Quick access to travel information is useful.  But both lead me -- throwback that I am -- to worry about TMI.  Too Much Information.  And about the loss of mystery, spontaneity, and surprise that come from too much advance information -- whether it's knowledge about where I'll sleep tonight while traveling, or about whether I'll encounter a lion around the next bend in the river.

I look ahead a couple or three generations.  Every wild animal, every hotel room, every bend in the river, every odd-shaped rock, will have been noticed, recorded, monitored and made available on-line, courtesy of ever speedier microprocessors and humongous warehouses full of servers.  The environment will be known so well that it can be reproduced -- digitally -- in detail.

The Times delivered the final blow in an email this morning.  Reminding me that they had sent me a free "Google Cardboard" virtual reality viewer several months ago, they breathlessly announced the latest entertainment treat:  "Use your Google Cardboard to watch our latest NYT VR film," the email was captioned.

It all comes together in my mind.  Virtual reality!  Of course.  Once all the earth and the creatures therein have been catalogued, shuffled, and organized, Google will bring out its Destinations 14.0 app.  Same photo of Paris.  Tap it.  Bing!  The offspring of Google Cardboard will fire up.  You can wander the streets of Paris, enjoy the ambience (if not the food ... yet ) of a small Left Bank café, wander the halls of the Louvre, climb the Tour de Eiffel -- all without leaving your living room.  (Or, if your interests are more outdoorsy, go on safari to darkest Africa.)

Las Vegas has long given tourists the opportunity to visit its own Nevada version of Paris.  Every bit as nice as visiting Paris, France, the ads suggest.  (But without the menacing discomfort of the horrid French waiters and taxi drivers, is the unstated subtext.  And all those French-speaking people.)

Destinations 14.0 will do Las Vegas one better.  No need to fly to out to the desert.  You can enjoy Paris, in perfect detail, while lounging in your recliner in the comfort of your own living room.  Vacations have never been so easy.
------------------------------------
*Daniel Duane, "The Unnatural Kingdom" NYT (3-11-16)