I’ll never forget meeting that robot.

I had spent over an hour delicately unpacking my Oculus Rift headset, installing and updating software on my ostentatiously overpowered desktop computer, and calibrating sensors to my extraordinarily efficient bedroom, which the software insisted could not reasonably be as small as I was reporting. When I finally put on the headset, the trappings of my cramped, cluttered apartment melted away and I found myself in a cramped, cluttered trailer — only it was on the moon, I think. A small robot appeared, and together we caught butterflies and danced with maracas and fired off toy rockets. I reveled in naïve wonderment typically reserved for middle schoolers at summer camp. My average, complicated, and unmistakably real life was doubtless waiting for me just outside, and for a blissful afternoon, that was no concern of mine.

It’s 2021, and we’re sitting on technology that can utterly immerse someone in another world — one that’s bigger than any video game, bigger than the entertainment industry. So why hasn’t this technology become a part of our everyday lives?

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