The county is re-asphalting

The county is re-asphalting stretches of my 5-mile daily commute. It really is amazing, how swiftly the final top is applied. That's my travel area.

Foreign places, foreigners, crowds of locals, public places, all are cesspools of disease and bacteria and bad attitudes out to git ya.

TSA, militarized highway patrolsoldiers, gas prices, road ragers, drunken invaders, and bandits abounding in our lawlessening world also make travel more adventurous than teasing Smaug.

Virtual travel seems a good candidate for Next Big Thing. Twenty years (maybe?) ago I stood in one of those VR immersion games, belt, helmet, all that. Remarkable for concept proof, lo-res, slo-response & all. And I've "stood next to" and "talked with" a fellow who said he was in China, in Second Life. In a world filled with amazing creations. And attended some live concerts.

As immersion tech gets better, faster, cheaper, home-level, Wal-Mart available, people will travel anywhere, and anywhen, for that matter, virtually, avoiding travel like folks with good home theaters avoid the cinema houses.

Substitute for wind in your hair and smell of salt sea spray? Never. We're not talking Holodecks here. You could get vertigo parasailing virtually, though, without the potential for too hard a landing, and no beach tar or smelly fellow humans being disease vectors.

Bradbury imagined living rooms designed with immersion television walls. At least people together in a room like that could still interact normally. The reality will be people jacked in, in pods.

Hm. I didn't know that would be my destination when I stepped out the door back there.

Think I'll go take a walk. Safe travels, y'all!