Water as Virtual Reality, or some initial thoughts on why I like liquidy, watery, slippery things.

In the science fiction film Solaris (based on the novel of the same name by Stanislaw Lem), director Tarkovsky tells a story of a psychologist who gets sent to a space station to check up on a group of scientists who have fallen into separate emotional crises. The space station is orbiting and conducting research on an aquatic planet called Solaris but its mission has been stalled due to the fact that the scientists on board are suffering from what appears to be emotional comas. Not long after the psychologist’s arrival to the space station, he becomes distressed by the presence of his late wife, or a virtual version of her. After her insistent reappearance after each time he kills her, he finally accepting her presence as reality and slowly descends into an emotional crises just like the fate of the other scientists. In the last scene, the psychologist is shown back at his father’s country home, but as the camera zooms out, it appears that he is actually on an island in the Solaris ocean.

Turns out the oceanic planet of Solaris was studying the scientists instead, and the source of all the virtual disruptions that caused the scientists psychological distress.