Metaverse and the Gun Society
October 1, 2017, was indeed a tough day. I had a meeting in Las Vegas the next day, so I planned to arrive the day before. I landed at the airport around 9 pm, hopped in a taxi, and headed straight to my accommodation at Planet Hollywood. On the way, I must have passed Mandalay Bay, where a large outdoor concert was taking place. I don't quite remember, I might have been looking at my smartphone. Just a few tens of minutes later, that concert venue would become the site of the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
It's quite long, but I'll repost the report that I posted on Facebook that day.
Although it's not at all pleasant, I've had another unique experience, so I'll write it down while my memory is still fresh.
I had to make a bullet trip to Las Vegas for just one day, leaving from where I live in New York on Sunday night, arriving in Las Vegas, and leaving Las Vegas on Tuesday morning.
As those around me know, I love casinos, or rather, I love craps (dice), so to avoid any misunderstanding, I planned to go on this business trip quietly and come back without saying anything.
So, I spent Sunday morning helping my son with his homework and doing various things, headed to JFK in the afternoon, my flight was slightly delayed, and while playing Dragon Quest which I hadn't had time to play in a while, I arrived at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas around 9:15 PM. After catching a shuttle and scrambling around, I caught a taxi and arrived at my accommodation, the Planet Hollywood Hotel, at exactly 10 PM. I hadn't had dinner and was hungry, and I wanted to go to the casino buffet, which offers a wide range of choices for those on a low-carb diet, but it was just closing at 10 PM and I couldn't get in, so I remember it well. Having no choice, I checked in, dropped my luggage in my room, and since I was so hungry, I immediately went down to the casino floor on the 1st floor to look for a place to eat.
At this point, it was probably around 10:15 PM. In fact, while I was going up to my room and leaving my luggage, the worst shooting incident in American history had started about a 25-minute walk away (but the blocks in Las Vegas are large, so it's about two blocks away). According to the news, the shooting began at 10:08 PM. The news said the shooting continued for about 15 to 20 minutes, so the tragedy ended around 10:30 PM.
So, I found a restaurant, ordered Chinese-style stir-fried beef, and was gazing too intently at the fried shrimp that two women at the next table were eating because it looked delicious, and they noticed and kindly gave me one. I probably finished eating around 10:45 PM.
As I was walking through the casino floor after my meal, thinking, "I'm here for work, I shouldn't be playing," I peeked at a craps table. That's when I heard (or thought I heard) someone scream, and everyone there instantly hit the floor, bending and hiding under the casino tables.
I reacted instantly too, diving under the craps table I was watching. There were no screams, everyone was holding their breath. Everyone there refused to move from their spot. When I asked the person next to me in a low voice, "What's happening?", all they said was, "I don't know".
Given the current climate in America, I naturally thought, "Wait, is this a terrorist attack? A shooting?" Of course, I thought, "This is scary. I don't want to die in a place like this."
I could hear someone shouting in the distance, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. There were 2 or 3 people running around, and I couldn't help but keep holding my breath, praying, "If these guys are terrorists and they come this way, I might get killed. Don't come here!" This was the scariest time. In reality, I strained my ears to hear if there were any gunshots. I didn't hear anything that sounded like that.
After observing the situation for a while and feeling like nothing was happening, I impulsively thought that it might be better to move deeper into the building, and so I ran towards a nearby restaurant from the craps table. The other people were still still.
Thinking I needed to get as deep inside as possible, I entered the kitchen of what seemed to be a hamburger joint. Quite a few people had also fled there. It was there that I finally asked, "What's going on?" and got the information, "There's been a shooting outside, and it seems like the perpetrator is coming this way!"
For a while, I watched the outside situation from the kitchen and waited. Gradually people started returning to the floor, and those who had been hiding under the casino tables also started to come out, so I thought it might be safe and decided to head towards my room. On the way, I saw a man who had been knocked down and restrained. "What?! Is this the perpetrator?" I thought, but I was scared and just ran towards the elevator leading to my room.
People kept rushing into the elevator. There were women crying. Everyone's faces were twisted in fear. When I got off at the 22nd floor where my room was, there were some people sitting there who seemed to have come up for safety even though they were not staying at the hotel.
When I asked, "Do you know anything in detail?" they said, "There was a shooting at the Mandalay Bay casino (the hotel where the actual shooter was), and then the perpetrator went to the MGM Grand (the next hotel) and shot there too. It seems he's heading this way now."
In reality, if you head north on Las Vegas Strip, you come to Mandalay Bay, then MGM, and next is the area of this hotel, so it was plausible information. I've been to Las Vegas a few times, and I had stayed at the DELANO, an annex of Mandalay Bay, just three months ago, so I understood the geographical relationship. I've also had drinks at the bar in Mandalay Bay's casino, so the fact that there was a shooting there was easy to visualize and sent chills down my spine.
I returned to my room and turned on the TV, switching to CNN and NBC to follow the news. At this time, the media was also confused with the information, and in fact, similar to what I had heard earlier, information was being broadcasted like, "The perpetrator ran in the direction of the Bellagio (the direction of my hotel). If you are inside a building, do not go outside under any circumstances!"
Around this time, various news alerts seemed to be flowing, and I started receiving messages from colleagues and others like, "Qanta, are you in Las Vegas right now? Are you alive?"
However, finally, I took a sigh of relief thinking, "It seems like I won't die in this situation," and continued to watch the news.
About an hour later, the news also started to calm down, and information like, "The perpetrator is one person. He is now under control," started to appear in press conferences by the Las Vegas Police.
My throat was dry and I wanted to procure some water, and I wanted to see what was going on below, so I went down to the casino floor once.
Naturally, there was no one on the casino floor, and the chips that were in play were left scattered around.
A security guard came up to me and said something like, "Please do not go outside at this time. If you absolutely have to, I won't stop you, but I can't guarantee your life." I was told, "If you're not a hotel guest, there's water prepared in the second floor lobby, so please wait there." I wanted water, so I went up, and people who couldn't return to their own hotels were sleeping on the floor.
There were still people crying. #The photos are ones I took around this time.
The next day, even the digital signage that usually brightens up Las Vegas was filled with prayers and calls for blood donations, and the entire city was quiet.
That's why, of all the days, I happened to be in such a place on this day and the next, and I witnessed a lot. I don't know why even in my hotel, everyone ended up lying down on the floor. When I followed up on Twitter and such, there were posts like, "I definitely heard gunshots at Planet Hollywood, why isn't anyone reporting it?!" Among them, there was one that said, "People who escaped from the shooting at Mandalay Bay came into the hotel shouting, 'The shooter is following us, run!'" and I thought, "Ah, it's probably something like that." Considering the time it would take to escape from the shooting and run from the scene to my hotel, about 15 to 20 minutes, the timing was just right.
I can do nothing more than pray for the souls of those who have passed away and for the speedy recovery of those who were injured, but I was able to understand with reality that living in this country where gun control is lax means there is also a risk of being involved in such an incident. Even in New York, where I live, it wouldn't be surprising if something like this happened at any time (in fact, this is the city where 9/11 occurred).
I do have various thoughts about this, but I wanted to properly record my own experience first, so I just wrote down the facts. If the conditions and timing were slightly different, I might have been involved as well. More than being glad I'm safe, I feel lucky to be safe. It was scary.
I'll also post a few photos from that time.
Even now, thinking back on it sends chills down my spine. It was terrifying.
Since then, there's something that I've become a bit scared of and have been unable to do, and that's ice skating.
The location of New York is closer to the latitude of Hachinohe, so it's much colder than Tokyo. Therefore, ice skating is quite popular there, with many skating rinks.
My family started skating after we moved to New York. At first, I couldn't skate at all and didn't understand the point of it, but once I got the hang of it, I realized it was actually quite enjoyable. I even bought my own skates and went skating almost every week.
The place we always went to was the skating rink set up every winter in Bryant Park, near Times Square. It's a skating rink right in the middle of an open park, where everyone happily skates around.
However, since the near-miss with the mass shooting, I've become afraid to go there. I couldn't help but think, "Isn't this an ideal target for a mass shooting?"
Just like the outdoor concert in Las Vegas, I feared that terrorists might prefer to shoot up places where people are gathered and seem to be having fun. It would certainly make a larger impact on the world, and there might be people who hate seeing others enjoying themselves and want to commit a massacre.
Living in America, these kinds of feelings are naturally very real.
On the other hand, in more rural areas, it's such a vast country that you often have to drive for a long time just to meet up with people.
Humans need communication. We need to gather and enjoy ourselves together. Yet, especially in the U.S., gathering physically is extremely cumbersome, and once people gather, there are substantial risks, like shootings and so on.
In America, it's tough for people to come together.
Considering this, it might feel abrupt to people in Japan when various people start talking about the "Metaverse" (a three-dimensional virtual space different from the real world) in this day and age, but I can't help but feel it's a natural progression.
For Americans, for whom gathering physically is difficult and carries substantial risk, the Metaverse might be an inevitable creation—an ideal realm where people can come together without physical constraints and the risk of being shot. I suspect that the sense of skepticism one might feel in Japan, like "Will this really catch on?" might be quite different.
Something that has made me feel this strongly is an event I've been attending daily since I arrived in Japan in July.
Calling it an "event" might be an exaggeration, but every morning at 6:30AM, if I go to a nearby square, I find a large group of local elderly people gathered, moving their bodies in time with music. Yes, it's radio calisthenics. Since arriving in Japan, I've started participating in radio calisthenics every morning, blending in with the elderly.
The morning after Facebook changed its company name to "Meta", as I was participating in the usual radio calisthenics, a thought suddenly struck me: "Isn't this a real-life Metaverse?"
By the way, here's what radio calisthenics looked like this morning. I had to join in myself, so I could only capture the beginning.
You might wonder, what's a "real-life Metaverse"? In this country (Japan), even elderly people with frail legs can gather in such large numbers with just a short walk, and of course, there's absolutely no concern about gunfire. The radio calisthenics are peaceful, idyllic, and a part of daily life. In Japan, you can do such things so casually, so unconsciously.
That's probably why, when you're in Japan, you might wonder, "Will the Metaverse really catch on?"
The COVID-19 pandemic has, coincidentally, made even Japanese people feel the risk of gathering. However, that's probably temporary, and the situation is quite different outside of Japan.
As we consider the Metaverse, the virtual, and virtual reality as a cultural phenomenon going forward, this kind of "international sensibility" might become quite important.