daesorinPluralistic: Delusion as a service.
https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/03/mission-space/
Serge from BabkaIf you went to EPCOT Center in the 1980s, nearly two decades before home Internet and broadband, you might have had the opportunity to use Worldkey, Disney's vision of the computer and information future. You would have used a Worldkey terminal to get information about the park with graphic and sound with the aid of an intelligent agent.
Or you could have gone to a ride about communication and used a video phone!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm71LBGSUu0
Today these kinds of things are entirely commonplace, but how was Disney able to pull this off 40 years ago?
Trickery! But that's okay, because sometimes the line between trickery and reality doesn't have to be so clear cut.
When I watched this video on Disney's Worldkey, I was thinking how common trickery like this is in games, and how much we can do if we're willing to embrace a little virtual smoke and mirrors.
#Disney
#Worldkey
#Futurism
#Telecommunications
#80s
#EPCOTCeenter
Worldkey: Disney's Fake Internet (1982)
What do computers, telephones and EPCOT Center have in common? Apparently a lot more than you might think. So come along, as we take a journey through more t...
I was never a big "theme park" kid or even Disney fan as a kid, but EPCOT Center was special. It was optimistic and nerdy. It presented the possibility of a utopian future where we could go underwater, into space, have amazing telecommunication, have cross cultural understanding, and be united as humanity.
It turns out that over the last 10 years or so, Disney has gutted EPCOT of all of the old exhibits and rides from its heyday in the 1980s when it launched and replaced them with Disney/Marvel themed rides/experiences, ripping away the core ideas and nerdyness that made EPCOT special.
(if you get why this meme is extra funny, bonus points).