By George Capsis
Michael Usyk had a show of his artwork in Paris which he attended via Skype—his image displayed on a laptop on a table in the middle of the show. Visitors to the exhibit (if they spoke English) could chat with Michael about his work as he sat in his little apartment in the West Village. Well, this does look like the near future has already arrived.
At my age I have concluded that I will never make another trip to Paris (with my aches and pains and poor balance I would never make it out of the airport, and a stroll down the Champs-Élysées would be impossible).
But what if I sat, electronically, in a robot body and rolled down the streets of Paris turning to see the sights and asking for directions with my translation dictionary in front of me? This will happen because both the technology and desire for it have arrived. Yes, I could not sit at a sidewalk cafe and have a meal but I could roll through the Louvre directing my robot wheels into the gallery of French Impressionists and pause and zoom into a detail I liked and even listen to the lecturer. And all of the rolling robot visitors could attend the Louvre at night after the museum has closed.
Yes, this is the inevitable future.
