So the race is on to develop an efficient environment for nuclear fusion. One of Fuse's ideas is to discharge a number of large capacitors at once, triggering a reaction. That's why we had all those big names standing behind the audience during our show. (You'll also see big cap builds at other fusion startups, like Helion.) Fuse's goal, as JC describes it, is to become the SpaceX of fusion, enabling “big tech” achievements with all kinds of partners .
Back to our story. JC contacts Serene and says we are opening a second location (the first was in Canada) and it would be nice to have a spectacular opening ceremony. Serene, founder of a startup that of course also works on music robots, makes obsessive logistical efforts. Charlotte does the same as a director. Those of you with some life experience may be wondering, “This sounds like an alien planet with two queens. Was it, uh, a process?' I will not give you a direct answer, except to compliment you on your refined wisdom.
Now you know the basics. I'm a scientist and don't like superstitious views of reality, but so many coincidences had to happen at the right time to make this show happen in just a few weeks. At the last minute we needed powerful robots; a professor of robotics at UC Berkeley, Ken Goldberg, found them for us. Why does reality sometimes synchronize like this?
In the eighties and nineties I gave high-tech music shows, often in VR. I'm burned out. It was terribly expensive, stressful and exhausting. I used to long for the future where VR would become cheap and many people would know how to use it. But when that time came, instead of relief, I felt what VR had become at simple. There used to be a sense that the stakes were higher. You had to make every triangle in the scene count because there couldn't be too many, even if the computer that did the real-time graphics cost a million dollars. There is a palpable sense of care in those earliest works.
If I longed for the hassle and expense of being a guarantor of the stakes, I found them again in this show. The week leading up to the performance reminded me of those early days of VR. Late, late evenings, which don't come as easily to me as before, during rehearsal; Serene is supposed to be trapped up there in the cables and mathematical dress designed by Threeasfour, but there is a timing problem with the robot's movement. With help, she frees herself, goes to a screen and programs at high speed for ten minutes. The robots slide again.
