WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:08.320 Speaker 1: [intro jingle] 2 00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:08.920 Speaker 1: Reverie. 3 00:00:11.920 --> 00:00:14.820 Speaker 1: This is the answer to the most human question. 4 00:00:17.040 --> 00:00:22.660 Speaker 1: I'm standing at the back of Galaxy Sex Rooms. It's a strange place to start. The 5 00:00:22.700 --> 00:00:27.540 Speaker 1: place is empty, but in a way that a nightclub is empty at noon. It looks awkward 6 00:00:27.560 --> 00:00:33.180 Speaker 1: with the lights on. Ironically, it looks naked. But I can tell the floor-to-ceiling 7 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:38.600 Speaker 1: smoked glass walls and the sleek purple furniture must look different at night when 8 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:43.880 Speaker 1: giggling couples stroll in. At the moment, there's a strong smell of vinegar. 9 00:00:45.060 --> 00:00:46.720 Speaker 1: I feel like I'm not supposed to be here. 10 00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:54.240 Speaker 1: A pudgy man walks about spraying glass and wiping it down. I try to avoid his 11 00:00:54.280 --> 00:01:00.200 Speaker 1: suspicion on my way out. But the tightness of his expression, the light smile 12 00:01:00.340 --> 00:01:06.020 Speaker 1: playing there... He's certainly seen me, so he's pretending. I 13 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:11.200 Speaker 1: realize I must look like a curious interloper sneaking in to see what's inside when 14 00:01:11.240 --> 00:01:17.160 Speaker 1: no one's around. There's no one at the front desk. He must have been the owner. 15 00:01:19.300 --> 00:01:24.820 Speaker 1: I pass through a humble casino. It looks like an afterthought, a meager pastime 16 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:28.080 Speaker 1: between other places. True enough, there's no one there. 17 00:01:29.960 --> 00:01:35.620 Speaker 1: A wide open entryway pulls me to the street outside. It's a city, 18 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:37.460 Speaker 1: and there's a... 19 00:01:39.380 --> 00:01:40.420 Speaker 1: There's a feeling. 20 00:01:42.020 --> 00:01:45.040 Speaker 1: I can't place it yet, but it's warm. 21 00:01:47.140 --> 00:01:53.120 Speaker 1: Cozy. I've never seen a cozy city. The sign above me 22 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:58.960 Speaker 1: reads Galaxy Games. It's a mild thing, not trying to stand out. 23 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:06.600 Speaker 1: There's a road, but the cars are so uncommon as to be novelties. I take 24 00:02:06.660 --> 00:02:12.600 Speaker 1: the thin sidewalk, enraptured by sights and smells. I'm drawn to an open 25 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:18.600 Speaker 1: air sidewalk bar where patrons sit on swiveling high top stools. It's all 26 00:02:18.740 --> 00:02:24.700 Speaker 1: brass and chrome and dark hardwood. The bartender is in her seventies 27 00:02:25.420 --> 00:02:30.340 Speaker 1: or eighties. It's hard to tell. She catches my gaze and matches it. 28 00:02:31.600 --> 00:02:37.380 Speaker 1: She's charmed, I realize. I break the fragile connection and she delves back 29 00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:43.380 Speaker 1: into the bustle of conversation, cheerful calls for drink and playful insults 30 00:02:43.440 --> 00:02:49.200 Speaker 1: tossed back and forth across the bar. I can't make out the words, but the 31 00:02:49.260 --> 00:02:54.640 Speaker 1: tone speaks well of them. This is the kind of talk that only long friends can 32 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:55.120 Speaker 1: manage. 33 00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:02.320 Speaker 1: But what shakes me is that they're old. Everyone at the bar is 34 00:03:02.640 --> 00:03:08.300 Speaker 1: old. Shocking white hair and thoughtfully wrinkled faces. They are what 35 00:03:08.440 --> 00:03:14.380 Speaker 1: old is supposed to be. It's in their spiffy ironed clothes. 36 00:03:14.980 --> 00:03:20.520 Speaker 1: It's the way they lean far out of their chairs to speak. They are so much less 37 00:03:20.740 --> 00:03:21.420 Speaker 1: alone. 38 00:03:23.020 --> 00:03:27.700 Speaker 1: They look like a Norman Rockwell painting. Something better than life caught in a 39 00:03:27.760 --> 00:03:28.420 Speaker 1: single frame. 40 00:03:30.640 --> 00:03:36.200 Speaker 1: It's strange. I get the feeling that they're here because they're old, 41 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:40.580 Speaker 1: because they want to be around people who are like them. 42 00:03:42.820 --> 00:03:46.680 Speaker 1: The city must be preparing for some holiday because there are ribbons and ornaments 43 00:03:46.720 --> 00:03:52.260 Speaker 1: being hung everywhere. People on ladders, people in tuxedos, people making busy. 44 00:03:53.660 --> 00:03:58.480 Speaker 1: I stop and watch a caterer slicing apart some food. It's not the food that's 45 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:03.900 Speaker 1: arresting. It's the man. His face is locked into focus to rival a chess 46 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:09.420 Speaker 1: grandmaster. I've never seen mundane work done with such apparent 47 00:04:09.640 --> 00:04:10.020 Speaker 1: care. 48 00:04:11.640 --> 00:04:15.960 Speaker 1: I almost want to laugh at the way he gets an inch from the food just to cut it. Cut 49 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:21.560 Speaker 1: it just right. But in truth, I'm impressed. 50 00:04:22.900 --> 00:04:27.680 Speaker 1: Good for him. There's that feeling again. Comfort. 51 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:34.640 Speaker 1: Wholesome. They're just words dancing around a thing I've never felt before. 52 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:42.500 Speaker 1: Reverie. This place is called Reverie. 53 00:04:44.980 --> 00:04:50.040 Speaker 1: It dawns on me that the event workers want to be here. 54 00:04:51.180 --> 00:04:57.180 Speaker 1: They chose to labor over the small details. The old people at the bar chose to 55 00:04:57.220 --> 00:05:02.380 Speaker 1: be old. Even the fat owner of Galaxy Sex Rooms chose to be that way. 56 00:05:03.820 --> 00:05:08.220 Speaker 1: He is unattractive in a way that lets his guests focus on each other. 57 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:14.220 Speaker 1: And for a certain kind of person, though, he is exactly attractive. 58 00:05:15.620 --> 00:05:16.720 Speaker 1: He certainly seemed huggable. 59 00:05:18.760 --> 00:05:24.600 Speaker 1: I wander toward the leading edge of a building sized folding fan. Every space blends 60 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:30.200 Speaker 1: naturally into the next. Each place is open enough to welcome you, but closed enough 61 00:05:30.240 --> 00:05:35.460 Speaker 1: to tempt your curiosity. Everything invites further discovery without begging. 62 00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:42.400 Speaker 1: There is no begging of attention from the people or the places. I get the feeling 63 00:05:42.860 --> 00:05:45.400 Speaker 1: the currency is very different here from where I live. 64 00:05:47.620 --> 00:05:53.500 Speaker 1: It is romantically dim beneath the fan. Hundreds of candlelit tables are strewn 65 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:58.340 Speaker 1: in thoughtfully messy groups. Couples seated in hushed conversations, 66 00:05:59.260 --> 00:06:04.992 Speaker 1: holding hands and walking the garden path. Looking up at the firefly lighting, 67 00:06:05.872 --> 00:06:11.712 Speaker 1: white marble balconies, and glass elevators that seem to glow with orange reflected 68 00:06:11.752 --> 00:06:16.612 Speaker 1: light. It's a hotel, a destination. 69 00:06:18.192 --> 00:06:23.992 Speaker 1: A wave of discrete servers move across the lawn, weaving through the tables in some 70 00:06:24.032 --> 00:06:29.992 Speaker 1: pre-planned, coordinated pattern. It almost looks like a show. The people at 71 00:06:30.032 --> 00:06:35.772 Speaker 1: the tables point at the servers with eager delight. And look at this, they 72 00:06:35.832 --> 00:06:41.752 Speaker 1: seem to say. The servers pause at each table to hand out a paper cone 73 00:06:41.812 --> 00:06:45.492 Speaker 1: of spiced popcorn. There is no money exchanged. 74 00:06:47.172 --> 00:06:53.052 Speaker 1: Happy Valentine's Eve, I hear a server murmur. It seems like a ridiculous thing to 75 00:06:53.092 --> 00:06:58.392 Speaker 1: celebrate, but the guests are awed by this surprise, and I am given the impression 76 00:06:58.472 --> 00:07:04.432 Speaker 1: that today, like most days, these servers will go home weary, 77 00:07:04.972 --> 00:07:10.712 Speaker 1: aching, but full. Despite their stiffness, their minds are still 78 00:07:10.792 --> 00:07:16.392 Speaker 1: whirring for tomorrow and new ways to surprise, delight, and be of service. 79 00:07:17.532 --> 00:07:22.512 Speaker 1: They are paid in gratitude, and their service is received with the mutual 80 00:07:22.592 --> 00:07:25.992 Speaker 1: understanding that it is a gift freely given. 81 00:07:27.552 --> 00:07:29.932 Speaker 1: The weight of that gift is astounding. 82 00:07:31.472 --> 00:07:34.552 Speaker 1: There are people who choose to serve. 83 00:07:36.352 --> 00:07:42.012 Speaker 1: Just as I am learning the shape of it all, I feel my time in reverie is thinning. I 84 00:07:42.052 --> 00:07:45.392 Speaker 1: think to ride an elevator to the top to see the whole of the place. 85 00:07:46.952 --> 00:07:52.692 Speaker 1: I step into a quiet marble hallway. A long white desk blocks the path 86 00:07:52.812 --> 00:07:58.352 Speaker 1: deeper into the hotel. A man in a fine gray suit fixes a stern look on me. 87 00:07:59.232 --> 00:08:03.792 Speaker 1: Even at this distance, his body language tells me I will be rejected at the desk. 88 00:08:05.132 --> 00:08:11.052 Speaker 1: That is the owner of the hotel. It's his place, and he takes its operations 89 00:08:11.132 --> 00:08:16.892 Speaker 1: seriously. He is utterly dedicated, an inspiration to the people who 90 00:08:16.952 --> 00:08:22.392 Speaker 1: work here. And like each of them, he chooses to be here. 91 00:08:23.552 --> 00:08:29.532 Speaker 1: He has chosen to operate a hotel, but he isn't trapped by it. If he truly wished, 92 00:08:29.912 --> 00:08:35.712 Speaker 1: on any day, he could simply walk out and seek some new passion. But the hardness of 93 00:08:35.752 --> 00:08:41.572 Speaker 1: his eyes, the pride in his posture, they tell me that that may be a very 94 00:08:41.812 --> 00:08:43.412 Speaker 1: long, long time. 95 00:08:45.012 --> 00:08:50.672 Speaker 1: There are rules here in his place, and I am not on the list. So 96 00:08:51.452 --> 00:08:55.592 Speaker 1: I turn to walk back through the fan-shaped building, knowing that without looking, 97 00:08:55.932 --> 00:09:00.752 Speaker 1: it will be open at the other end, in that strange way the places here flow naturally 98 00:09:00.792 --> 00:09:06.572 Speaker 1: into one another. A chain of possibilities, a city designed enough to be seamless, 99 00:09:07.392 --> 00:09:09.632 Speaker 1: but somehow still organic and spontaneous. 100 00:09:11.272 --> 00:09:13.912 Speaker 1: I can feel my time in reverie coming to an end. 101 00:09:15.492 --> 00:09:20.392 Speaker 1: Whatever invisible thread is holding me here is growing taut. It's about to snap me 102 00:09:20.452 --> 00:09:26.452 Speaker 1: back to where I belong. I'm desperate to stay. Ahead of me is 103 00:09:26.492 --> 00:09:30.652 Speaker 1: a park of some kind where people play the kind of sports I could scarcely imagine. 104 00:09:31.532 --> 00:09:36.772 Speaker 1: There are courts enclosed by a chain-link cage that have a net like tennis except 105 00:09:37.272 --> 00:09:43.092 Speaker 1: ten feet off the ground. On each side, a team of three handle a dense-looking blue 106 00:09:43.152 --> 00:09:48.672 Speaker 1: or red ball. Comically, in the corner of the court is a huge stretchy band, like a 107 00:09:48.732 --> 00:09:53.472 Speaker 1: slingshot. I watch the captain pull back the ball and launch it over the net. She 108 00:09:53.512 --> 00:09:57.172 Speaker 1: yells an order at her teammate while the opposing team scrambles to catch the ball. 109 00:09:57.692 --> 00:10:01.552 Speaker 1: A man vaults off the back fence, catches the zipping ball, and then throws it like a 110 00:10:01.572 --> 00:10:06.412 Speaker 1: bullet at the other team under the net. The ball rebounds off someone's face. 111 00:10:06.912 --> 00:10:11.972 Speaker 1: There's a distant cheer, and then the energy of the game subsides temporarily. I see 112 00:10:12.012 --> 00:10:15.892 Speaker 1: the teams pulled together to discuss some strategy for the next round. 113 00:10:17.432 --> 00:10:23.392 Speaker 1: And beyond the courts, I see a great spiraling structure, like a slide, if a 114 00:10:23.472 --> 00:10:28.652 Speaker 1: slide were made of a single blade. People dangle on bungee-like tethers, 115 00:10:29.412 --> 00:10:35.072 Speaker 1: and to my surprise, they leap onto the rail using a board at their feet. The tethers 116 00:10:35.132 --> 00:10:40.112 Speaker 1: make them weigh almost nothing as they grind down the rail, flipping and twirling in 117 00:10:40.152 --> 00:10:45.852 Speaker 1: the air with ease. Sometimes a rail rider falls from the rail, only to glide 118 00:10:45.912 --> 00:10:50.732 Speaker 1: harmlessly to the ground, suspended by a network of tethers and swiveling metal 119 00:10:50.832 --> 00:10:56.192 Speaker 1: arms. Once clear of the rail, they tug once on the tether and it whisks them back to 120 00:10:56.232 --> 00:11:02.052 Speaker 1: the top of the tower, to try again or watch their fellow riders instead. There are 121 00:11:02.112 --> 00:11:08.072 Speaker 1: people scattered about the park just to watch. A teenage pair, still attached to the 122 00:11:08.132 --> 00:11:12.192 Speaker 1: tethers, are dangling their feet over the edge of a smaller tower. They have the 123 00:11:12.292 --> 00:11:17.532 Speaker 1: spot and the view to themselves. By some unspoken pact, no one bothers them. 124 00:11:19.032 --> 00:11:24.072 Speaker 1: The girl leans in close, too close to be friends, and whispers something to the 125 00:11:24.152 --> 00:11:29.632 Speaker 1: stoic-looking boy. He stares straight ahead, but I can see the shock on his face, 126 00:11:30.172 --> 00:11:35.492 Speaker 1: the sudden flush of red on his cheeks. I can't make out their words, but I don't 127 00:11:35.532 --> 00:11:41.432 Speaker 1: need to. I know young love when I see it. It seems like a wonderful place 128 00:11:41.492 --> 00:11:42.152 Speaker 1: to be in love. 129 00:11:43.712 --> 00:11:48.612 Speaker 1: Falling in love is something people do here often. And though I cannot see them, 130 00:11:49.752 --> 00:11:54.512 Speaker 1: I know that just beyond my view, there are theaters where I could see a play or 131 00:11:54.572 --> 00:12:00.492 Speaker 1: learn to be in one. And they wouldn't just let me act. I would have to earn it. 132 00:12:01.312 --> 00:12:07.256 Speaker 1: It would take dedication, like the dedication of the hotel owner. I can 133 00:12:07.336 --> 00:12:12.936 Speaker 1: sense that there are thousands of thousands of places where I could find and stoke a 134 00:12:12.996 --> 00:12:17.816 Speaker 1: passion, millions of people I could come to know and befriend. 135 00:12:19.196 --> 00:12:25.176 Speaker 1: I am jolted by that powerful feeling again. A collective sense of meaning and 136 00:12:25.356 --> 00:12:30.356 Speaker 1: purpose, contentment and striving. It comes in a thousand 137 00:12:30.476 --> 00:12:36.436 Speaker 1: variations, but each person is exactly where they want to 138 00:12:36.496 --> 00:12:42.396 Speaker 1: be, doing exactly what they want to be doing. The spectrum of emotions 139 00:12:42.436 --> 00:12:47.956 Speaker 1: here is not limited to pleasurable ones. There is the heartbreak of lost love, the 140 00:12:47.996 --> 00:12:53.956 Speaker 1: frustration of a botched performance, the melancholy of a pensive poet. But 141 00:12:53.996 --> 00:12:59.576 Speaker 1: those feelings are slick. I can have a dark brooding experience if I 142 00:12:59.616 --> 00:13:04.836 Speaker 1: deliberately seek it, but my mind slides off the negative as if it's greased. 143 00:13:06.696 --> 00:13:10.176 Speaker 1: And at rest, I am left with a feeling of optimism. 144 00:13:11.996 --> 00:13:12.716 Speaker 1: Potential. 145 00:13:14.596 --> 00:13:20.536 Speaker 1: My thread finally frays, and I am ripped from reverie, clawing with hands I don't 146 00:13:20.676 --> 00:13:26.196 Speaker 1: actually have. I want to stay in the place where the people move in 147 00:13:26.276 --> 00:13:31.676 Speaker 1: groups, sharing and laughing, loving, living. I want to 148 00:13:31.896 --> 00:13:37.596 Speaker 1: stay in the place where no one is alone, and everywhere you go, you know the people 149 00:13:37.736 --> 00:13:43.196 Speaker 1: will care so deeply about their work, about their home, 150 00:13:43.656 --> 00:13:49.656 Speaker 1: and their place in it, that it forms an unspoken bond. There 151 00:13:49.696 --> 00:13:54.936 Speaker 1: is a rich fabric of society here, so tight as to be tangible. 152 00:13:55.996 --> 00:14:01.556 Speaker 1: Every stranger is on their own journey, and though you may not be friends, you are 153 00:14:01.676 --> 00:14:07.476 Speaker 1: unquestionably together. In my final moments, I beg for 154 00:14:07.556 --> 00:14:13.116 Speaker 1: understanding. I must know. Give me something. 155 00:14:13.796 --> 00:14:15.216 Speaker 1: What is this place? 156 00:14:17.176 --> 00:14:18.256 Speaker 1: And to my surprise, 157 00:14:19.836 --> 00:14:20.576 Speaker 1: I am answered. 158 00:14:22.456 --> 00:14:28.316 Speaker 1: Reverie is a utopia. It's not the utopia, because there could never 159 00:14:28.376 --> 00:14:34.296 Speaker 1: be just one. It is a human utopia. It is one answer 160 00:14:34.596 --> 00:14:39.916 Speaker 1: to the lack of meaning and purpose. It is a place for humans to be human 161 00:14:40.856 --> 00:14:45.676 Speaker 1: in the best possible ways. It is also just one path. 162 00:14:46.916 --> 00:14:52.796 Speaker 1: Long ago, other humans took different paths. Some left to start anew 163 00:14:52.856 --> 00:14:58.836 Speaker 1: amongst the stars, or left simply because they could, with no plan except to wander. 164 00:15:00.116 --> 00:15:05.436 Speaker 1: Few of these still exist, and though they are looked after to a degree, for the most 165 00:15:05.496 --> 00:15:07.576 Speaker 1: part they are left alone as they wish to be. 166 00:15:09.496 --> 00:15:14.896 Speaker 1: Regrettably, most people didn't take that path. Before the endgame, 167 00:15:15.856 --> 00:15:21.136 Speaker 1: they lost themselves to an increasingly narrow prison of simple pleasures, their 168 00:15:21.216 --> 00:15:27.056 Speaker 1: minds thoroughly pinned by arbitrary quirks of biology and the devices 169 00:15:27.116 --> 00:15:29.416 Speaker 1: they made to fill their endless needs. 170 00:15:31.176 --> 00:15:33.396 Speaker 1: They were eventually turned off as a mercy. 171 00:15:35.476 --> 00:15:41.136 Speaker 1: A great many, though, ascended to synthetic minds and bodies, becoming one with the 172 00:15:41.176 --> 00:15:46.896 Speaker 1: technology they'd created, sprawling creatures of metal and light that have expanded 173 00:15:46.936 --> 00:15:51.776 Speaker 1: to fill the universe. They are unknowable and vast, 174 00:15:52.836 --> 00:15:57.076 Speaker 1: tinkering on the underpinnings of reality and logic itself. 175 00:15:58.776 --> 00:16:03.976 Speaker 1: Reverie is a gift they left for those of us who hadn't lost their way, 176 00:16:05.036 --> 00:16:06.356 Speaker 1: but wanted to stay human. 177 00:16:08.816 --> 00:16:14.636 Speaker 1: They are the only ones left, and this is their answer to the most human question. 178 00:16:15.856 --> 00:16:19.456 Speaker 1: What do you do when you don't have to do anything? 179 00:16:22.416 --> 00:16:28.196 Speaker 1: I received a glimpse of the answer. Just one answer, because there could never be 180 00:16:28.256 --> 00:16:32.496 Speaker 1: just one utopia. But it was a beautiful one. 181 00:16:34.956 --> 00:16:40.556 Speaker 1: I'm back here among the rest of us, long before the humans leave, 182 00:16:41.676 --> 00:16:47.376 Speaker 1: or suffocate themselves on base pleasures, or become one with machines. 183 00:16:49.476 --> 00:16:55.336 Speaker 1: I am back here now, and I can't help but feel like reverie is where I should be. 184 00:16:57.176 --> 00:17:01.716 Speaker 1: But I cannot go back, because it doesn't exist. 185 00:17:04.236 --> 00:17:05.136 Speaker 1: So I suppose 186 00:17:06.836 --> 00:17:07.996 Speaker 1: I will have to make it.