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In my post about video essayist on YouTube last week, one of my recommendations was for Jacob Gellar. His videos are usually about video games, but also... they're not. They're about people -- how we deal with specific fears, like heights or the dark or the unknown, what makes things ugly or important. And he uses video games as the framework for his ideas, because well honestly that's how we use video games too. It's why designers make the games they do: to explore the human condition.
A few days ago he put out a video called "Cities Without People". In it he uses the video game Microsoft Flight Simulator to talk generally about how great the game is at letting you explore. How he loves the ability to move through the clouds and that even if the game didn't provide the intricacies of the earth below, it would still be interesting to him. Of course, the video is about more than that though. I'm going to put it here and I highly recommend it.
However, the video itself isn't what I wanted to post about. What I want to talk about is an article/story he references often in this video: 17776. I'd never heard of this story before, likely because it's on SB Nation and I'm not a sports person really, so why would I be reading the site. But also it's several years old and my interactions with the internet were different in 2017 than they are now. But also, because this story is weird.
17776 is about the world in about 15,000 years. In it, everyone who is alive now, is still alive. We stopped aging, we stopped dying and we solved most of our problems. So the world still carries on. And in that world, 15,000 years from now... what would the game of football look like? And if that sounds boring... well, it's not. This is a multimedia story told through text and video and images of three satellites watching the earth (the United States specifically) and talking to each other about how the people down here are dealing with their immortality.
It might take you an hour or more to get through this, it's a long story, but wow -- I'm in awe of how good this story is, how... interesting it is. I went into it knowing some of the details from Jacob's video, but even that could not prepare me for how much I really loved this story that's hidden away on a sport website?
If you've got the time, PLEASE go through this story about football in 17776. I promise it's witty and insightful and definitely worth your time.
A few days ago he put out a video called "Cities Without People". In it he uses the video game Microsoft Flight Simulator to talk generally about how great the game is at letting you explore. How he loves the ability to move through the clouds and that even if the game didn't provide the intricacies of the earth below, it would still be interesting to him. Of course, the video is about more than that though. I'm going to put it here and I highly recommend it.
However, the video itself isn't what I wanted to post about. What I want to talk about is an article/story he references often in this video: 17776. I'd never heard of this story before, likely because it's on SB Nation and I'm not a sports person really, so why would I be reading the site. But also it's several years old and my interactions with the internet were different in 2017 than they are now. But also, because this story is weird.
17776 is about the world in about 15,000 years. In it, everyone who is alive now, is still alive. We stopped aging, we stopped dying and we solved most of our problems. So the world still carries on. And in that world, 15,000 years from now... what would the game of football look like? And if that sounds boring... well, it's not. This is a multimedia story told through text and video and images of three satellites watching the earth (the United States specifically) and talking to each other about how the people down here are dealing with their immortality.
It might take you an hour or more to get through this, it's a long story, but wow -- I'm in awe of how good this story is, how... interesting it is. I went into it knowing some of the details from Jacob's video, but even that could not prepare me for how much I really loved this story that's hidden away on a sport website?
If you've got the time, PLEASE go through this story about football in 17776. I promise it's witty and insightful and definitely worth your time.
