To Connect Or Not To Connect?

Dana Andreicut wonders whether, or not, to escape into the Matrix.

- Dana Andreicut

It is the 8th November 2016. The days are getting shorter, the air is getting chillier. Autumn is here to stay, and a carpet of red, yellow and beige leaves has settled over the city. You wake up before your alarm at the sound of a news blast, and breathe a deep sigh of relief as you look down at the screen of your smartphone: ‘Hillary Clinton secures White House election, narrowly defeating Republican nominee Donald Trump.’

Suddenly everything goes dark and the subtle background sound of a cooling fan grinds to a halt.

You open your eyes and look around.

You find you’re in a white room, and that you’re wearing a pair of curious-looking glasses. In front of you is a screen. Your ears are covered by a pair of heavy bluetooth headphones. You remove them and as you slowly take in your surroundings, you notice a middle-aged man in a white lab coat coming towards you. He says, “Thanks for taking part in our VR experiment!”

When you step out of the room you take out your phone. You glance at the screen and note in shock the latest news headlines: ‘Trump presidency lives up to expectations as work begins on wall with Mexico’; then ‘ISIS claims 40 victims in attack on Istanbul nightclub.’ You put your phone back into your pocket and wonder whether you can’t purchase a holiday in the VR machine.