A familiar voice on the answering machine. Then a happy/sad/touching conversation over the phone. Then maybe a favorite record. Wait, actually, a favorite playlist of MP3s. Then the pictures, the reports, the movies, the war?. The world as a recording, the world as a "live" transmission, the world as a summary of dream like surrogates. We are at a point where we trust machines and the man made experience much more than we trust our direct impression. And even if there is a direct impression, it is rarely a first one...
The things we end up seeing in person often appear less dramatic than what was shown to us through the macro/tele/zoom lens, than what was edited and rehearsed and sung in hundreds of edits and to us in an unlimited/limited/special edition. And even if it somehow happens that we encounter the real thing, some actual touch point with reality, we better be ready and have that fast dissolving pill with us... because chances are, we are incredibly allergic to it.