2018 short science fiction. Marie has done something bad at work; now
she's undergoing therapy by virtual reality.
This is the first part of a project by the Center for Science and
the Imagination at Arizona State University, working to tell stories
about emerging technology. So this virtual reality isn't the generic
battle game that most fictional VRs tend to be; it's a scenario set up
specifically to give therapeutic benefit.
Of course, at the short story length, any benefit must feel a bit
excessive relative to the amount of time spent getting it, and
sometimes it comes over as facile. But it would be fair to argue that
much of the point of (good) therapy is, specifically, to get people to
accept things about themselves that they already knew but hadn't
integrated, and that's the main thrust here.
It's not clear whether there will be further writing in this setting;
this story exists mostly to provoke thought. But I wouldn't mind reading more.
Freely available via ASU.
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