What will I have?
I am not currently in doubt about the purpose of life. I’m a little miffed about how difficult it is at the moment, but that’s partly because I’m not in charge. This is a feature, not a bug, so I’m told. It’s supposed to be hard, and I’m not in charge of the really big stuff: who lives, who dies, the weather, natural disasters. I’m not in charge of the other inmates or inhabitants or primordial descendants or future gods and goddesses. They’re all wild cards in some way, held in place only by their own expectations and what they decide at any given moment to do with what they’re experiencing. On the other hand, not one of these people can fly unaided and swimming takes real effort; they’re pinned to the ground and ultimately limited to the speed they can run. They’ve each been given a body that does more or less what they want it to do (see above restrictions). They also have the ability to sound off whenever they want about whatever they want. It’s probably a good thing we’re not all in the same room.
Hence video games. I can spend hours pretending to be a Jedi Knight, supremely buff, with an awesome set of weapons and abilities. There’s some kindness and petting fluffy animals, but mostly that game is whupping people in armor, plus their security droids.
I can spend hours virtually farming, talking to people in a small isolated town, gifting them my produce and defending them from cave creatures. I can buy and rearrange furnishings. I can add plots of land and even add or delete some of the people. My barns and coops can be filled with animals that never lived in barns before: seals, dragons, penguins, capybaras. I can grow plants that never existed: pork chops, essence of light, one-up mushrooms.
There are lots of other options, some blocky, some flowing. There are so many options that game makers categorize to simplify: bullet hell where it’s all shooting all the time; parkour where there’s nothing harmful except falling to your death; match three where you put things in groups and are awarded with musical fanfares and sparkles. It’s very engaging; there are enough free and cheap options that I could play them all day every day and never touch the bottom.
Where they all fall down is this: my body still needs sleep and food and the company of actual humans. There are smells and messes that happen regardless. The sun comes up, goes down; clouds rain and wind blows. Time passes. I do not grow younger. What will I have later?
