Here's a COVID riddle for you. Is it worth it to visit a museum in person or can you see everything that's worth seeing online?

It's not a real riddle because right now there is no choice. We're living life through our screens.

But maybe you've gone to a virtual concert this year and had a pretty good time

or maybe had a game night gone gone on a date, took a cooking class, so maybe you'd say yes, it's totally

worth it to participate in what we would call quote unquote normal life online.

I'm back in my final year at McGill University in Montreal where my favorite college

professor, a guy named Peter Junckin, poses this very question. Is it worth it to visit a museum? Let's say the Louvre in person.

At the time I just sit there wondering what are we talking about here? I mean I'm from from Paris, the Louver is iconic. That's not a question for me. It's a fact.

Every time someone visits us, we take them to the Louver. But do I stick my hand up in the air to share that? No. Every student has an opinion.

But most of us shuffle our belongings and stretch, eventually daring to look up to the front of the class where Peter stands

thrusting his arms out as if to say, well, this

question won't answer itself, will it? And as you all know, there's always that one kid who inevitably

can't keep his thoughts to himself, and says something like it depends on what you're

trying to get out of the experience a classic non-answer that Peter doesn't even

acknowledge and we're off art is meant to be evocative.

It's impossible to feel the full extent of its impact

unless you're standing in its presence.

One point for the loover.

But what about VR? Someone else says. What if a virtual tour is so incredible

that it's impossible to distinguish reality from virtual reality? Peter jumps in to say, for practical reasons, let's stick to technology that exists today.

And with that, someone finally says what I've been thinking all along.

Of course it's worth going to the Louver in person.

...