WIRED

Disney Land with the Death Penalty
WIRED sends William Gibson to the future: Singapore
"It's like an entire country run by Jeffrey Katzenberg," the producer had
said, "under the motto 'Be happy or I'll kill you.'" We were sitting in an
office a block from Rodeo Drive, on large black furniture leased with
Japanese venture capital.Now that I'm actually here, the Disneyland metaphor is proving impossibleto shake. For that matter, Rodeo Drive comes frequently to mind, thoughthe local equivalent feels more like 30 or 40 Beverly Centers put end to
end.Was it Laurie Anderson who said that VR would never look real until they
learned how to put some dirt in it? Singapore's airport, the Changi
Airtropolis, seemed to possess no more resolution than some early VPL
world. There was no dirt whatsoever; no muss, no furred fractal edge to
things.