For reasons unclear to me, most humans really like the feeling of having a destiny. Perhaps not a “I’m the chosen one” destiny, but more of a mild “this is how I think things will play out because that is what I think is supposed to happen”.
There’s something alluring about it. Maybe it gives life more meaning. Maybe it makes people feel safer. Maybe it helps give direction to those who can’t decide what to do with themselves.
It doesn’t matter. Let’s give them a museum.
You enter the museum. By destiny (aka random drawing), pre-ordained powers of the universe (aka the your imagination) have selected some experiences just for you (aka there’s enough experiences for each person to have their own).
Not everyone gets to see everything. Only the chosen ones (aka everyone) get to see their destiny (aka their specific, randomly selected activities).
The experiences are somehow customized to your name or age or related information about you. It uses your name in them. A lot. There is a big emphasis on how it was meant to be. There is inspiring music. It asks you to reflect and really gets you thinking about things, the people, their stories, your stories. It really tries hard to get your buy-in.
Of course, the destinies are somewhat generic, at first. Through a combination of cold-reading techniques and technology, the Museum of Destiny can alter your destiny on the fly to match the sorts of inputs you give it. I think this will be a nice feature because those who are serious about it will give serious answers and get the destinies they want and those that think the whole thing is bunk (which it is) will give it goofy answers to mess with it and will get fun destinies in return.
I think headphones will be useful here. It’s more private and after all, you are giving people their own destinies.
Now let’s go deeper.
If we have headphones then we can coordinate headphones. Your destiny might start *right now* in the museum of destiny and you will be encouraged to go to places in the museum or take small actions. These small actions might intersect delightfully with other visitors’ actions. (“ooh destiny!”). These, of course, were curated and planned ahead as part of the experience. Three people all told they had a destiny of food show up at a painting of food. As their headphones continue, it mentions how they might meet other food lovers in the future. (Oh wow. You see other people here at the painting). You are instructed to touch the painting. So are they. Then there is a ding and it means destiny. At that point, a docent comes out and offers some food to the three of you.
Ok, that’s a pretty specific example. Perhaps not a great one. But I hope the idea has been illustrated: The come in thinking they would be given a destiny for “later on”, but turns out that the destiny is starting now and with the other people around you. The headphones know who is where and can create interactions between people in a way that appears destined.
I think the combination of cold-reading, AI, and human interaction would be a really fun sandbox to create exciting and unique experiences.