I'm All About the Real, Man
In response to a thought-provoking WaPo article about the future of museums in our ever-more digitized and entertainment-driven world, this guy asks:
If we can access a white-laser virtual model of the Mona Lisa at a resolution of 10 microns from our personal computer, why bother getting shoved around and consumed by the crush of tourists at the Louvre only to get no closer than 3 feet? ...What's the point of going to a museum today?
Um, to see the actual painting rather than a picture of it? Isn't that astoundingly obvious?
Look, in my book, it doesn't matter how much detail we're able to capture in this "virtual model." It doesn't matter if we someday invent a Star Trek-style holodeck that can recreate the entire Louvre so perfectly that the curator of the place would be fooled, or if we have a Matrix-style VR feed piped directly into our brains, or even a Total Recall-style false memory of having been there. None of these things will be real. These marvels of technology, no matter how detailed or accurate, will never be anything more than virtual. Copies, in other words. And there is a reason why copies aren't as valued as the actual items.
The reason is as simple as this: a virtual model of the Mona Lisa was never touched by Leonardo's hands. It hasn't survived the centuries, the wars, the rise and fall of nations, of entire civilizations. And to anyone with even a hint of imagination or sensitivity, that little fact matters, or at least it ought to. I haven't seen the Mona Lisa myself, but I've seen plenty of other ancient artworks and artifacts, and let me tell you something: even when you're separated from them by three inches of climate-control and bulletproof glass, you can feel the age of them, as tangible as a texture or an odor. (I wish there was a practical way to allow museum goers to smell these objects, actually... it would enhance the experience immeasurably to get a whiff of another time...) And that gives these objects a quality, a value that no simulacrum will ever have.
That's not to say that there is no value in technology like that white-laser model. I'm sure it'll become a boon for researchers and art students, or for those who find a high-speed Internet connection and a decent monitor much more affordable than a trip to Paris. And if, God forbid, something should ever happen to the original, well, a simulacrum is better than nothing. But the suggestion that there's no longer a point in seeing the real thing because we now have the virtual one makes my blood run cold. It arouses my inner Grumpy Old Man and makes me wonder what the hell is wrong with kids these days.
Of course, there is a positive side to that idea: if a whole bunch of people decide to stay at home and look at the virtual painting instead of actually going to Paris, it'll make it much easier for me to get closer to the real thing...