Being the Only Consciousness in a 1:1 scale version of Earth
That heading sounds a bit strange, right? But after binging videos on liminal spaces, liminality in video games and the uncanny feeling empty and / or dead video games create in an audience, I remembered my feeling when I started a little hiking trip after MSFS 2024’s release last year. The disembodied sounds of a city, of cars passing by - and the uncanny feeling of being watched.
So I decided to explore these feelings from now on - I disabled multiplayer and I disabled all AI traffic, be it ground, sea or air. I entered a version of our planet without any other living or simulated being in it. And I started exploring.
Day 1: Göttingen, Germany
Yesterday, around sunset, I decided to start my first 15 minute exploration session in this ‘dead’ world. I picked the German city of Göttingen - familiar as I lived my entire life in Germany, but unknown to me, as I never visited this place before. It didn’t take long for the feeling of unease to set in. The setting sun and the disembodied noises felt wrong as I walked along the rail lines and the streets of this empty city. In the end I even began thinking I spotted the glint of an aircraft in the sky - or mistook the outline of a distant house for an AI car. Our brains really dislike emptiness, hm?
Day 2: Wadi ad-Dawasir, Saudi-Arabia
This morning I began a second 15 minute exploration of a completely unknown place - the city of Wadi ad-Dawasir in Saudi-Arabia, focussing on the district of Al-Quwayz. Despite the bright sun outside, the same feeling settled in. Loneliness, unease, but also a strange calm. Some moments it felt almost surreal or dreamlike. It is a really funky feeling to be honest!
FYI I edited these shots by cropping and jpeg-ing them multiple times before reducing contrast and increasing sharpness. Somehow this fits very well my view of these places as I walked them in my ‘dead’ version of MSFS 2024.