Why are people bored? To my mind, boredom seems nearly impossible. I say nearly because I, too, know what it is. Wikipedia says boredom has to do with our “Experience of time and problems of meaning.” I get this. We find ourselves uncertain about what to do next, especially if what we are considering has no real personal meaning. Hence, kids can become bored playing video games because the game has lost meaning, but there’s nothing else to do with one’s time.

The philosophical definition of boredom talks about one’s environment being dull, tedious, and lacking stimulation. In our technologically advanced age, this seems like an impossibility, but I get it, too. You see, having a laundry list of virtually thousands of things to do is a pretty recent thing. We no longer look for what we will be doing for the rest of the day. A typical 16-hour day has been fragmented into tiny moments that need filling. Imagine life on a farm 100 years ago; you might have worked a task an entire day and still have to return to it the next day.

Fast forward to 2015, and we are constantly waiting for the next stimulus, and when it arrives late, we get bored. So, we pull out our phones and make a quick scan of the social media we are plugged into. Nothing there? Try a quick game with someone else who’s bored. If they’re not responding quickly enough, play against the computer.

We are not becoming stimulus junkies; we have ALWAYS been, so it’s just getting easier to satisfy that biological need. We used to see it in nomads, inventors, professional soldiers, serial entrepreneurs, and artists. Now, it’s starting to afflict all of us. We need adventures, entertainment, and lots of stuff to do.

This is where a symbiosis between Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence can work positively for humanity. If our robot overlords could anticipate where boredom might arise and take steps to place us in situations that account for our trajectory into a void of stimulus and counter that with something to do that is of interest to us, boredom would be crushed.

Video games and action movies already try to do this by throwing brute force kinetic energy at the player/viewer in a relentless attack so the person cannot pause for even a second of boredom. The problem here is that some of us, I suspect many more than we might think, do not enjoy this bombardment of mindless intensity where thought is excluded in exchange for more excitement.

So, is there a place for an environment like Hypatia? I believe so. Will we see players get bored? Possibly, but it will hopefully be quickly squashed as the player continues their exploration and discovery of our city. As more creative people move in and start offering their content and entertainment to others, they will fill the gap where a small company simply cannot produce so much material to keep the visitor constantly engaged.

Hypatia demands participation. You are not only the observer in your seat waiting to be entertained, but you also have a responsibility to yourself and others to get involved. It’s kind of like a band; either you are on stage playing guitar with us, or the show was sold out, and you’re watching your favorite group again on YouTube. So saddle up your inner panther and get ready to pounce…..boredom will be banished.