1 00:00:01,640 --> 00:00:02,100 Speaker 1: Reverie. 2 00:00:05,060 --> 00:00:08,000 Speaker 1: This is the answer to the most human question. 3 00:00:10,220 --> 00:00:15,840 Speaker 1: I'm standing at the back of Galaxy Sex Rooms. It's a strange place to start. The 4 00:00:15,860 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: place is empty, but in a way that a nightclub is empty at noon. It looks awkward 5 00:00:20,740 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: with the lights on. Ironically, it looks naked. But I can tell the floor-to-ceiling 6 00:00:26,700 --> 00:00:31,780 Speaker 1: smoked glass walls and the sleek purple furniture must look different at night when 7 00:00:31,820 --> 00:00:37,060 Speaker 1: giggling couples stroll in. At the moment, there's a strong smell of vinegar. 8 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:39,900 Speaker 1: I feel like I'm not supposed to be here. 9 00:00:42,420 --> 00:00:47,420 Speaker 1: A pudgy man walks about spraying glass and wiping it down. I try to avoid his 10 00:00:47,460 --> 00:00:53,380 Speaker 1: suspicion on my way out. But the tightness of his expression, the light smile 11 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:59,200 Speaker 1: playing there. He's certainly seen me, so he's pretending. I 12 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:04,379 Speaker 1: realize I must look like a curious interloper sneaking in to see what's inside when 13 00:01:04,420 --> 00:01:10,340 Speaker 1: no one's around. There's no one at the front desk. He must have been the owner. 14 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:18,000 Speaker 1: I pass through a humble casino. It looks like an afterthought, a meager pastime 15 00:01:18,020 --> 00:01:21,260 Speaker 1: between other places. True enough, there's no one there. 16 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:28,800 Speaker 1: A wide open entryway pulls me to the street outside. It's a city, 17 00:01:30,180 --> 00:01:30,620 Speaker 1: and there's a... 18 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:33,600 Speaker 1: There's a feeling. 19 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:38,220 Speaker 1: I can't place it yet, but it's warm. 20 00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:46,300 Speaker 1: Cozy. I've never seen a cozy city. The sign above me 21 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:52,140 Speaker 1: reads Galaxy Games. It's a mild thing, not trying to stand out. 22 00:01:53,820 --> 00:01:59,780 Speaker 1: There's a road, but the cars are so uncommon as to be novelties. I take 23 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:05,480 Speaker 1: the thin sidewalk, enraptured by sights and smells. I'm drawn to an 24 00:02:05,540 --> 00:02:10,440 Speaker 1: open-air sidewalk bar where patrons sit on swiveling high-top stools. 25 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:17,060 Speaker 1: It's all brass and chrome and dark hardwood. The bartender is in her 26 00:02:17,140 --> 00:02:22,900 Speaker 1: seventies or eighties. It's hard to tell. She catches my gaze and 27 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:28,920 Speaker 1: matches it. She's charmed, I realize. I break the fragile 28 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: connection, and she delves back into the bustle of conversation, cheerful calls for 29 00:02:34,340 --> 00:02:40,260 Speaker 1: drink, and playful insults tossed back and forth across the bar. I can't make 30 00:02:40,340 --> 00:02:46,340 Speaker 1: out the words, but the tone speaks well of them. This is the kind of talk that 31 00:02:46,380 --> 00:02:48,300 Speaker 1: only long friends can manage. 32 00:02:50,260 --> 00:02:55,700 Speaker 1: But what shakes me is that they're old. Everyone at the bar is 33 00:02:55,820 --> 00:03:01,480 Speaker 1: old. Shocking white hair and thoughtfully wrinkled faces. They are what 34 00:03:01,620 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 1: old is supposed to be. It's in their spiffy ironed clothes. 35 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:13,700 Speaker 1: It's the way they lean far out of their chairs to speak. They are so much less 36 00:03:13,920 --> 00:03:14,600 Speaker 1: alone. 37 00:03:16,220 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: They look like a Norman Rockwell painting, something better than life caught in a 38 00:03:20,940 --> 00:03:21,640 Speaker 1: single frame. 39 00:03:23,820 --> 00:03:29,380 Speaker 1: It's strange. I get the feeling that they're here because they're old, 40 00:03:30,460 --> 00:03:33,760 Speaker 1: because they want to be around people who are like them. 41 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:39,860 Speaker 1: The city must be preparing for some holiday because there are ribbons and ornaments 42 00:03:39,900 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: being hung everywhere. People on ladders, people in tuxedos, people making busy. 43 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:51,660 Speaker 1: I stop and watch a caterer slicing apart some food. It's not the food that's 44 00:03:51,700 --> 00:03:57,080 Speaker 1: arresting, it's the man. His face is locked into focus to rival a chess 45 00:03:57,140 --> 00:04:02,600 Speaker 1: grandmaster. I've never seen mundane work done with such apparent 46 00:04:02,820 --> 00:04:03,220 Speaker 1: care. 47 00:04:04,820 --> 00:04:09,300 Speaker 1: I almost wanna laugh at the way he gets an inch from the food just to cut it. Cut it 48 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:14,740 Speaker 1: just right. But in truth, I'm impressed. 49 00:04:16,079 --> 00:04:20,860 Speaker 1: Good for him. There's that feeling again. Comfort. 50 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:27,820 Speaker 1: Wholesome. They're just words dancing around a thing I've never felt before. 51 00:04:30,220 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 1: Reverie. This place is called Reverie. 52 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:43,220 Speaker 1: It dawns on me that the event workers want to be here. 53 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:50,360 Speaker 1: They chose to labor over the small details. The old people at the bar chose to 54 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:55,560 Speaker 1: be old. Even the fat owner of Galaxy Sex Rooms chose to be that way. 55 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:01,400 Speaker 1: He is unattractive in a way that lets his guests focus on each other. 56 00:05:02,820 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: And for a certain kind of person, though, he is exactly attractive. 57 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:09,900 Speaker 1: He certainly seemed huggable. 58 00:05:11,940 --> 00:05:17,780 Speaker 1: I wander toward the leading edge of a building-sized folding fan. Every space blends 59 00:05:17,900 --> 00:05:23,380 Speaker 1: naturally into the next. Each place is open enough to welcome you, but closed enough 60 00:05:23,420 --> 00:05:28,660 Speaker 1: to tempt your curiosity. Everything invites further discovery without begging. 61 00:05:29,580 --> 00:05:35,580 Speaker 1: There is no begging of attention from the people or the places. I get the feeling 62 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:38,580 Speaker 1: the currency is very different here from where I live. 63 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:46,680 Speaker 1: It is romantically dim beneath the fan. Hundreds of candlelit tables are strewn 64 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 1: in thoughtfully messy groups. Couples seated in hushed conversations, 65 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:58,200 Speaker 1: holding hands and walking the garden path, looking up at the firefly lighting, 66 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:04,880 Speaker 1: white marble balconies, and glass elevators that seem to glow with orange reflected 67 00:06:04,940 --> 00:06:09,788 Speaker 1: light. It's a hotel, a destination. 68 00:06:11,368 --> 00:06:17,168 Speaker 1: A wave of discrete servers move across the lawn, weaving through the tables in some 69 00:06:17,208 --> 00:06:23,168 Speaker 1: pre-planned, coordinated pattern. It almost looks like a show. The people at 70 00:06:23,208 --> 00:06:28,948 Speaker 1: the tables point at the servers with eager delight. And look at this, they 71 00:06:29,028 --> 00:06:34,928 Speaker 1: seem to say. The servers pause at each table to hand out a paper cone 72 00:06:34,988 --> 00:06:38,667 Speaker 1: of spiced popcorn. There is no money exchanged. 73 00:06:40,348 --> 00:06:46,228 Speaker 1: Happy Valentine's Eve, I hear a server murmur. It seems like a ridiculous thing to 74 00:06:46,288 --> 00:06:51,568 Speaker 1: celebrate, but the guests are awed by this surprise. And I'm given the impression 75 00:06:51,648 --> 00:06:57,628 Speaker 1: that today, like most days, these servers will go home weary, 76 00:06:58,168 --> 00:07:03,848 Speaker 1: aching, but full. Despite their stiffness, their minds are still 77 00:07:03,968 --> 00:07:09,568 Speaker 1: whirring for tomorrow and new ways to surprise, delight, and be of service. 78 00:07:10,728 --> 00:07:15,688 Speaker 1: They are paid in gratitude, and their service is received with the mutual 79 00:07:15,768 --> 00:07:19,188 Speaker 1: understanding that it is a gift freely given. 80 00:07:20,728 --> 00:07:23,108 Speaker 1: The weight of that gift is astounding. 81 00:07:24,648 --> 00:07:27,748 Speaker 1: There are people who choose to serve. 82 00:07:29,548 --> 00:07:35,188 Speaker 1: Just as I am learning the shape of it all, I feel my time in reverie is thinning. I 83 00:07:35,228 --> 00:07:38,588 Speaker 1: think to ride an elevator to the top to see the whole of the place. 84 00:07:40,148 --> 00:07:45,868 Speaker 1: I step into a quiet marble hallway. A long white desk blocks the path 85 00:07:45,988 --> 00:07:51,528 Speaker 1: deeper into the hotel. A man in a fine gray suit fixes a stern look on me. 86 00:07:52,408 --> 00:07:56,968 Speaker 1: Even at this distance, his body language tells me I will be rejected at the desk. 87 00:07:58,328 --> 00:08:04,228 Speaker 1: That is the owner of the hotel. It's his place, and he takes its operations 88 00:08:04,308 --> 00:08:10,088 Speaker 1: seriously. He is utterly dedicated, an inspiration to the people who 89 00:08:10,128 --> 00:08:15,547 Speaker 1: work here. And like each of them, he chooses to be here. 90 00:08:16,748 --> 00:08:22,728 Speaker 1: He has chosen to operate a hotel, but he isn't trapped by it. If he truly wished, 91 00:08:23,088 --> 00:08:28,908 Speaker 1: on any day, he could simply walk out and seek some new passion. But the hardness of 92 00:08:28,928 --> 00:08:34,748 Speaker 1: his eyes, the pride in his posture, they tell me that that may be a very 93 00:08:35,008 --> 00:08:36,588 Speaker 1: long, long time. 94 00:08:38,188 --> 00:08:43,848 Speaker 1: There are rules here in his place, and I am not on the list. So 95 00:08:44,628 --> 00:08:48,768 Speaker 1: I turn to walk back through the fan-shaped building, knowing that without looking, 96 00:08:49,108 --> 00:08:53,428 Speaker 1: it will be open at the other end. In that strange way, the places here flow 97 00:08:53,488 --> 00:08:59,128 Speaker 1: naturally into one another. A chain of possibilities. A city designed enough to be 98 00:08:59,208 --> 00:09:02,808 Speaker 1: seamless, but somehow still organic and spontaneous. 99 00:09:04,448 --> 00:09:07,108 Speaker 1: I can feel my time in reverie coming to an end. 100 00:09:08,668 --> 00:09:13,588 Speaker 1: Whatever invisible thread is holding me here is growing taut. It's about to snap me 101 00:09:13,628 --> 00:09:19,628 Speaker 1: back to where I belong. I'm desperate to stay. Ahead of me is 102 00:09:19,668 --> 00:09:23,788 Speaker 1: a park of some kind where people play the kind of sports I could scarcely imagine. 103 00:09:24,708 --> 00:09:29,948 Speaker 1: There are courts enclosed by a chain-link cage that have a net like tennis, except 104 00:09:30,468 --> 00:09:36,268 Speaker 1: ten feet off the ground. On each side, a team of three handle a dense-looking blue 105 00:09:36,328 --> 00:09:41,848 Speaker 1: or red ball. Comically, in the corner of the court is a huge stretchy band, like a 106 00:09:41,928 --> 00:09:46,648 Speaker 1: slingshot. I watch the captain pull back the ball and launch it over the net. She 107 00:09:46,688 --> 00:09:50,348 Speaker 1: yells an order at her teammate while the opposing team scrambles to catch the ball. 108 00:09:50,868 --> 00:09:54,728 Speaker 1: A man vaults off the back fence, catches the zipping ball, and then throws it like a 109 00:09:54,748 --> 00:09:59,588 Speaker 1: bullet at the other team under the net. The ball rebounds off someone's face. 110 00:10:00,088 --> 00:10:05,148 Speaker 1: There's a distant cheer, and then the energy of the game subsides temporarily. I see 111 00:10:05,188 --> 00:10:09,068 Speaker 1: the teams pulled together to discuss some strategy for the next round. 112 00:10:10,608 --> 00:10:16,568 Speaker 1: And beyond the courts, I see a great spiraling structure, like a slide, if a 113 00:10:16,648 --> 00:10:21,828 Speaker 1: slide were made of a single blade. People dangle on bungee-like tethers, 114 00:10:22,608 --> 00:10:28,268 Speaker 1: and to my surprise, they leap onto the rail using a board at their feet. The tethers 115 00:10:28,308 --> 00:10:33,288 Speaker 1: make them weigh almost nothing as they grind down the rail, flipping and twirling in 116 00:10:33,328 --> 00:10:39,028 Speaker 1: the air with ease. Sometimes a rail rider falls from the rail, only to glide 117 00:10:39,088 --> 00:10:43,848 Speaker 1: harmlessly to the ground, suspended by a network of tethers and swiveling metal 118 00:10:44,028 --> 00:10:49,368 Speaker 1: arms. Once clear of the rail, they tug once on the tether and it whisks them back to 119 00:10:49,408 --> 00:10:55,228 Speaker 1: the top of the tower, to try again or watch their fellow riders instead. There are 120 00:10:55,288 --> 00:11:01,248 Speaker 1: people scattered about the park just to watch. A teenage pair, still attached to the 121 00:11:01,308 --> 00:11:05,368 Speaker 1: tethers, are dangling their feet over the edge of a smaller tower. They have the 122 00:11:05,468 --> 00:11:10,708 Speaker 1: spot and the view to themselves. By some unspoken pact, no one bothers them. 123 00:11:12,228 --> 00:11:17,248 Speaker 1: The girl leans in close, too close to be friends, and whispers something to the 124 00:11:17,328 --> 00:11:22,808 Speaker 1: stoic-looking boy. He stares straight ahead, but I can see the shock on his face, 125 00:11:23,348 --> 00:11:28,668 Speaker 1: the sudden flush of red on his cheeks. I can't make out their words, but I don't 126 00:11:28,708 --> 00:11:34,608 Speaker 1: need to. I know young love when I see it. It seems like a wonderful place 127 00:11:34,688 --> 00:11:35,328 Speaker 1: to be in love. 128 00:11:36,908 --> 00:11:41,808 Speaker 1: Falling in love is something people do here often. And though I cannot see them, 129 00:11:42,928 --> 00:11:47,708 Speaker 1: I know that just beyond my view, there are theaters where I could see a play or 130 00:11:47,748 --> 00:11:53,688 Speaker 1: learn to be in one. And they wouldn't just let me act. I would have to earn it. 131 00:11:54,488 --> 00:12:00,448 Speaker 1: It would take dedication, like the dedication of the hotel owner. I can 132 00:12:00,528 --> 00:12:06,108 Speaker 1: sense that there are thousands of thousands of places where I could find and stoke a 133 00:12:06,168 --> 00:12:10,988 Speaker 1: passion. Millions of people I could come to know and befriend. 134 00:12:12,372 --> 00:12:18,352 Speaker 1: I am jolted by that powerful feeling again. A collective sense of meaning and 135 00:12:18,532 --> 00:12:23,532 Speaker 1: purpose, contentment and striving. It comes in a thousand 136 00:12:23,652 --> 00:12:29,612 Speaker 1: variations, but each person is exactly where they want to 137 00:12:29,672 --> 00:12:35,572 Speaker 1: be, doing exactly what they want to be doing. The spectrum of emotions 138 00:12:35,612 --> 00:12:41,132 Speaker 1: here is not limited to pleasurable ones. There is the heartbreak of lost love, the 139 00:12:41,172 --> 00:12:47,132 Speaker 1: frustration of a botched performance, the melancholy of a pensive poet. But 140 00:12:47,172 --> 00:12:52,772 Speaker 1: those feelings are slick. I can have a dark brooding experience if I 141 00:12:52,812 --> 00:12:58,012 Speaker 1: deliberately seek it, but my mind slides off the negative as if it's greased. 142 00:12:59,872 --> 00:13:03,352 Speaker 1: And at rest, I am left with a feeling of optimism, 143 00:13:05,172 --> 00:13:05,892 Speaker 1: potential. 144 00:13:07,772 --> 00:13:13,712 Speaker 1: My thread finally frays, and I am ripped from Reverie, clawing with hands I don't 145 00:13:13,852 --> 00:13:19,392 Speaker 1: actually have. I want to stay in the place where the people move in 146 00:13:19,452 --> 00:13:24,852 Speaker 1: groups, sharing and laughing, loving, living. I want to 147 00:13:25,072 --> 00:13:30,852 Speaker 1: stay in the place where no one is alone, and everywhere you go, you know the people 148 00:13:30,912 --> 00:13:36,392 Speaker 1: will care so deeply about their work, about their home, 149 00:13:36,852 --> 00:13:42,832 Speaker 1: and their place in it that it forms an unspoken bond. There 150 00:13:42,872 --> 00:13:48,112 Speaker 1: is a rich fabric of society here, so tight as to be tangible. 151 00:13:49,172 --> 00:13:54,732 Speaker 1: Every stranger is on their own journey, and though you may not be friends, you are 152 00:13:54,852 --> 00:14:00,652 Speaker 1: unquestionably together. In my final moments, I beg for 153 00:14:00,732 --> 00:14:06,252 Speaker 1: understanding. I must know. Give me something. 154 00:14:06,992 --> 00:14:08,392 Speaker 1: What is this place? 155 00:14:10,372 --> 00:14:11,452 Speaker 1: And to my surprise, 156 00:14:13,012 --> 00:14:13,752 Speaker 1: I am answered. 157 00:14:15,632 --> 00:14:21,492 Speaker 1: Reverie is a utopia. It's not the utopia because there could never 158 00:14:21,552 --> 00:14:27,472 Speaker 1: be just one. It is a human utopia. It is one answer 159 00:14:27,772 --> 00:14:33,092 Speaker 1: to the lack of meaning and purpose. It is a place for humans to be human 160 00:14:34,032 --> 00:14:38,852 Speaker 1: in the best possible ways. It is also just one path. 161 00:14:40,092 --> 00:14:45,992 Speaker 1: Long ago, other humans took different paths. Some left to start anew 162 00:14:46,052 --> 00:14:52,012 Speaker 1: amongst the stars or left simply because they could with no plan except to wander. 163 00:14:53,292 --> 00:14:58,612 Speaker 1: Few of these still exist, and though they are looked after to a degree, for the most 164 00:14:58,672 --> 00:15:00,752 Speaker 1: part, they are left alone as they wish to be. 165 00:15:02,672 --> 00:15:08,072 Speaker 1: Regrettably, most people didn't take that path. Before the endgame, 166 00:15:09,032 --> 00:15:14,312 Speaker 1: they lost themselves to an increasingly narrow prison of simple pleasures, their 167 00:15:14,392 --> 00:15:20,232 Speaker 1: minds thoroughly pinned by arbitrary quirks of biology and the devices 168 00:15:20,292 --> 00:15:22,592 Speaker 1: they made to fill their endless needs. 169 00:15:24,352 --> 00:15:26,572 Speaker 1: They were eventually turned off as a mercy. 170 00:15:28,652 --> 00:15:34,312 Speaker 1: A great many, though, ascended to synthetic minds and bodies, becoming one with the 171 00:15:34,352 --> 00:15:40,072 Speaker 1: technology they'd created, sprawling creatures of metal and light that have expanded 172 00:15:40,112 --> 00:15:44,952 Speaker 1: to fill the universe. They are unknowable and vast, 173 00:15:46,012 --> 00:15:50,252 Speaker 1: tinkering on the underpinnings of reality and logic itself. 174 00:15:51,952 --> 00:15:57,172 Speaker 1: Reverie is a gift they left for those of us who hadn't lost their way 175 00:15:58,212 --> 00:15:59,532 Speaker 1: but wanted to stay human. 176 00:16:01,992 --> 00:16:07,812 Speaker 1: They are the only ones left, and this is their answer to the most human question. 177 00:16:09,052 --> 00:16:12,632 Speaker 1: What do you do when you don't have to do anything? 178 00:16:15,592 --> 00:16:21,372 Speaker 1: I received a glimpse of the answer. Just one answer because there can never be 179 00:16:21,432 --> 00:16:25,672 Speaker 1: just one utopia. But it was a beautiful one. 180 00:16:28,152 --> 00:16:33,731 Speaker 1: I'm back here among the rest of us long before the humans leave 181 00:16:34,872 --> 00:16:40,552 Speaker 1: or suffocate themselves on base pleasures or become one with machines. 182 00:16:42,652 --> 00:16:48,512 Speaker 1: I am back here now, and I can't help but feel like Reverie is where I should be. 183 00:16:50,352 --> 00:16:54,892 Speaker 1: But I cannot go back because it doesn't exist. 184 00:16:57,432 --> 00:16:58,312 Speaker 1: So I suppose 185 00:17:00,012 --> 00:17:01,172 Speaker 1: I will have to make it.