Having received news that a distant relation you have never even heard of before has died and left you a house, you take a long weekend to investigate this unexpected inheritance. No one else can get away for the long trip, so you have to go alone.
There is, as you might expect, a quite unusual door off the kitchen. When you open it with the unusual key you’ve been given, you step through and find yourself…
You find yourself standing on a grassy hill on a beautiful sunny day. Stretched out below you is an archetypal futuristic city of many a utopian imagination. There are tall white buildings, shining white monorails and pavillions, etc. Not to mention people flying around with actual jetpacks.
Nearby, a robot trims the park grass, and some distance away you can see an family having a picnic. The family looks like quite ordinary people, except that they’re all wearing futuristic outfits.
You glance behind you and see that the portal is slowly closing. [added later] And your key is gone. You have maybe 4 or 5 seconds to decide if you are going to lose what may be your only chance at going home, or to stay here in what appears to be a futuristic utopia.
All you have with you are the clothes on your back, a week’s worth of personal medications (if you need them), and anything you would normally carry for a long trip, like your wallet/purse, phone, glasses, etc. All your luggage is still out in the car.
Do you jump back through the portal, returning to your family, friends, job, and position in society, or do you stay and explore?
Go back. I’ve still got the door, and the key.
Doh! I forgot to mention that the key was gone.
I stay.
A whole new world to explore? Yes, I would miss the world I knew, and maybe get lonely, but the opportunity cannot be given up.
Stay. The implication that this is the one and only chance means that I’d be going back to a life where I’m forever convinced of my own mental illness. I’ll risk the Lovecraftian horrors hiding beneath the surface.
Ugh – I’d probably just end up stuck there because I cannot make decisions that fast. I’d still be going, ugh, what, wait, huh? Shit.
Knowing my luck, I’d decide to go back and then trip over my shoelaces before I could reach the door.
No desire to stay though – there’d have to be a better reason for wanting to stay than ‘this place looks nice’. The love of my life, a very big dog chasing me, or an easy alternative to suicide and maybe I’d pick sci-fi utopia.
Otherwise it’s the equivalent of stepping off the plane in Paris without any luggage, any intention of going there and without a clue what the place is like. Looks interesting, but I don’t speak the language, I don’t have any means to support myself and the people might hate me (I am English after all).
Very, very few people have come out and said they would stay. You’re a rare bird.
“Wow! This is so cool! Look at that! And that! And that!!! Wait’ll I tell my hubs– Hey, where’s the door?”
And hey, the future might be a nice place to live.
Better reason? What about “jet packs?”
I would block the door.
With the robot, if necessary.
Steve Barr wins +1 Internets.
I’d probably stay in the new world. There’s a better chance I can figure out how to get back to here with the knowledge from there than the other way around. Besides, it’s a whole new fricking world to explore.