The other day, while looking for the art gallery in Harbour City that I'd read about, I decided to check its location on what I thought was one of those standard electronic shopping centre maps.
I touched the screen and wondered why it was taking so long to load (it was probably no more than fifteen seconds, but you know how long that feels when you're waiting for something to load). Suddenly up pops a window containing a genuine customer service person, in real time, no less. I was too surprised to do anything but blurt out my question, 'Where's the art gallery?', in English, as I don't know the words for art gallery yet. In excellent English he explained where I should go, as if he were standing right there next to me. As he did, he underlined these directions by writing the name of a prominent store near the gallery, in some mysterious fashion so that it appeared across the screen in front of me, handwritten. After thanking him in Cantonese, I wandered off, and sure enough, it was just where he'd described.
The art itself was an anti-climax. I felt like I'd just seen the shape of the future, with virtual helpers popping up where you need them to give you assistance and then disappearing silently and swiftly once they are done. Of course the technology isn't quite that smooth, but it certainly felt like it was close at that moment.
Have I been watching too much 'Big Bang Theory'? Is my inner-nerd showing through?
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