WEBVTT 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.