REALITY IS OPTIMAL

WHAT IT ACTUALLY IS

Three things. Places is a set of twenty-four environments you can look around: move your cursor to shift the view, click objects to examine them, and look away to see whether the room changed while you weren't watching. Memories explains why any of it works. Discover holds the shorter experiments — a memory test, spot the change, an old camera.

WHAT IS REAL

None of the photographs are of a specific school, house, hotel or arcade. They are assembled to look like the type rather than the place, because that is how these environments are actually stored in memory. Nothing here belongs to anyone.

The writing in Memories describes how familiarity and recall are commonly understood and reported. Where something is uncertain, it says so. Nothing here is presented as a finding it is not.

HOW TO USE THIS SITE

Every photograph is completely still, like a print from a disposable camera. In a room, click the circles: each one tells you what the object is, then why a place like this stays in almost everybody's head, then one question worth sitting with.

Discover holds the short experiments — a memory test, a familiarity survey, dream or memory, spot the change, and a camera you can take pictures with. There are also a small number of objects that are not marked clearly. Find one and it is counted in the status bar at the bottom of the page. Nobody needs to find them.

THE POINT

A school hallway was once just a hallway. A basement was just a basement. A summer evening was just another evening. Everything in this collection is ordinary — it only became interesting after enough time passed.

Which means the room you are in right now is already on its way to being one of these. That is the whole idea, and it is the last time it will be stated directly.