The Veldt
In the Veldt, the family has an extreme technological advanced house that can do almost everything for them, including a nursery that can realistically display what children imagined in their head, which later brought distress to their parents. Knowing how those advance installations made those children to be independent form their parent’s affection and control, I wanted to create an interactive artifact that allows children to creatively explore the world they created and experience it together with their parents. The interactive artifact is called “Walk my World,” an interactive room that create simulation of the world the children created, and it can be controlled and conditioned verbally just by saying the order out loud. The room can be operated right away after one of the parents inserted their fingerprint and unlock the room. Then, the family members will stand onto the center area of the room where they can continuously walk while remaining in the same spot. As soon as they started walking they can order the room to shape the environment by starting the phrase with “I want…” For example, they can experience a walk on a beach filled with sea turtles by saying: “I want beach. I want waves. I want sea turtle.” Children can get creative by saying something that doesn’t exist like flying penguin, and the room is able to create it and add it to the world setting like the beach created previously. The floor area that they walk on will change accordingly to the setting. To create a beach, the floor area will transform into sand like walkway, and the breeze-like wind will start flowing within the room. One potential safety problem is that, the children may fell down while the floor transforms. “Walk my World” is similar to the invention of 4D theater that we have nowadays. Both displayed realistic and magical environment, however 4D theater cannot provide responses to your order, and they cannot create some conditions such as flooding floor with waves.
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
My interactive invention idea that can take part of the setting in The Ones Who Walk Away is called “Sadly Happy Earrings.” It is a pair of earrings that uses colors to reflect the main source of the happiness of the person on the left earring, and main source of suffering of the child in the basement on the right earring. For the happy side earring, the earring will collect the data from the surrounding of the happy person and conclude the happy source that the person is experiencing. The sources of happiness are divided into corresponding categories with colors: music(red), family(orange), festival(yellow), health(green), pets(blue), events and stories they listen to(violet), friends(pink), others(neon green). Walking on the street with happy earrings, people can find others that share the same happiness and they can strike a conversation or make friends. The main source of suffering of the child will be detected through a helmet that can determine the different levels of pain from different parts of his/her body. The sources of sufferings are divided into corresponding categories with colors: hunger(dark green), skin(dark blue), organ pain(dark red), and mental illness(black). Wearing the sad side of the earring can remind those happy people that the joyful things they are enjoying comes from one’s suffer. The only problem of my invention is that the earring’s reflections of the child’s suffering source may lead to more and more people leaving Omelas. Through research, I found a modern technology developed by MIT researchers that uses a system to measure the pain of a patient trough a portable device that analyzes brain activity. This technology can be applied to the helmet that detect the suffering source of the child.
A diagram analyzing brain activity
The Plague
My interactive invention for The Plague is a set of bracelets that works together to detect the slightest movements and calculates the data, then it gives an interpretation or presumes the kind of movement that the solidified humans are intending to make. There will be a mini rectangular screen hung on the right side of the person’s chest, where it displays the name and his/her autobiography. If you want to know their intended move you just have to simply swipe up and there will be a word or words that indicates their actions. To ensure we can gather complete information of the tiny movements, the bracelet will be assembled on both sides of the arms and legs. When there is no movement detected at all for more than a year, the person will be indicated as dead, and the crow will move them away to cremate. One potential problem here is that, there can be a possibility of the person not moving just because they are taking a rest, and cremating them will be the same as acting a murder. An existing technology that is similar to my invention is Apple Watch. It is a watch that can calculate your heart rate and steps through your movements, moreover it can signal you when you have an irregular heart rate and when you are inclining to fall down.
References
The Veldt by Ray Bradbury, https://repositorio.ufsc.br/bitstream/handle/123456789/163728/The%20Veldt%20-%20Ray%20Bradbury.pdf. Accessed 24 September 2022.
“Check your heart rate on Apple Watch.” Apple Support, https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/heart-rate-apda88aefe4c/watchos. Accessed 24 September 2022.
“How are earthquakes detected?” British Geological Survey, https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/earth-hazards/earthquakes/how-are-earthquakes-detected/. Accessed 24 September 2022.
“The Plague by Yan Leisheng, translated by Andy Dudak.” Clarkesworld, https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/yan_08_20/. Accessed 24 September 2022.
“”The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” – Ursula Le Guin — HCC Learning Web.” HCC Learning Web, https://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/emily.klotz/engl1302-6/readings/the-ones-who-walk-away-from-omelas-ursula-le-guin/view. Accessed 24 September 2022.