https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/72890/pg72890-images.html#THE_MACHINE_STOPS

From the Wikipedia page

a less obvious, though equally important theme is what Forster refers to as "the sin against the body." This occurs when people's intellectual refinement and spirituality advance to such a point that they become disconnected from their physical bodies and are unable to adapt to changing environments.

After reading the synopsis and then hitting that sentence... This Forster mofo understood something deep within us that most people today have no clue about. It's like we want to disconnect from the world we live in.

Maybe it's that our combination of self awareness and intelligence allow us to have an internal dialogue. It makes us feel like our mind a separate entity that's driving our physical body around, and isolating our minds from the messiness of the natural world lets us exist in our more pure evolved state or whatever.

I was admittedly way more into the metaverse (ala Snow Crash, not frickin facebook) and VR concepts decades ago. And I've had some great experiences in immersive games including VR. But to flip around the line from The Matrix, "the mind cannot live without the body." We need to engage all of our senses and live in our environment, and not try to pretend like we're just another computer on the network.

Season 4, episode 4. "Virtual Slide"

You know what depressed me? I wanted to rewatch Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, but the episode I loaded up first from the entire run of the show? The one where a pandemic hit their town... and this was in 2021 or 2022, right when COVID-19 was still raging and pretty much on everyone's mind. That immediately got me off.