we have entered the “imagining plausible bad VR edutainment simulations of a guitar in her sleep and having revelations about them” phase of me still not having bought a goddamn guitar

‪“VR” is not quite right. it was uh. one of those novel human-computer interfaces that is neither precise nor responsive that you would use purely for an interactive exhibit in some science museum for kids‬

‪specifically some kinda bad hand-tracking system without visual immersion‬

i was able to pick up the plectrum and “pluck” individual notes, but i don't think i strummed at all, and i don't know if the system was capable of it. i must've played a familiar melody or bassline

but then i wondered: why are there 12 picks arranged in the circle of fifths

cue me realising that this dreamworld simulated guitar either did not have a fretboard or did not have sufficiently precise hand tracking to make use of it. so that was their workaround

this is… remarkably coherent as technology in dreams goes

‪the weird thing is that there being 12 different labelled picks (i am assuming there were 12 based on the labelling) was seemingly a detail i noticed and ignored before realising it was not possible to fret. that might just be dream perception playing tricks on me. still, cool‬

also, obviously, based on the characteristics i just described, this imagined “simulated guitar” was an insult to guitars. this is also incredibly realistic. it would be far more surreal to encounter an actually good simulation of a guitar in a dream

‪i wish sword art online was real so i could plug into the nervegear and find out, first of all, if any guitar or guitar-like instruments exist in that world, and second, what things are and aren't accurately reproduced by that simulation‬