In april of 2019, the people of france witnessed a catastrophic destruction of cultural history, the notre dame cathedral, one of the most prominent historical monuments in the world was consumed in smoke and flame, nine centuries of historical significance marred. Many hours and five hundred firefighters later and the flame was quelled, thankfully the towers remained standing, but the roof collapsed. As foretold in the novel “the hunchback of notre dame” nearly 170 years ago, “all eyes were raised to the top of the church. They beheld there an extraordinary sight. On the crest of the highest gallery, higher than the central rose window, there was a great flame rising between the two towers with whirlwinds of sparks.”. While this tragedy was devastating indeed, the good people of france and indeed the world, rose to the occasion. Countless donations from across the globe flooded in to help rebuild the cathedral, but the construction would prove to be an undertaking of five years. Five years of a stark burnt monument in the middle of the country was far too depressing to not be dealt with immediately, so a startup called “histovery” made an augmented reality based reconstruction of the cathedral, complete with thirteen different language settings, ease of accessibility, an interactive environment, and historically accurate time periods, they sought to allow everyone everywhere to experience the majesty of notre dame in all its glory both past and present. What was once a corporeal location that received thirty thousand visitors per day, became a video game like experience with 120,000 people attending within the first month of its debut at the french exhibit in the 2022 world fair in dubai. From there it traveled to dresden, germany, new orleans and a dozen other cities within the next two years, and now they have nearly twenty other museums and monuments in their gallery available to the public. 

This is actually a nice Segway into my project on the world fair, it’s benefits and impacts on society as a whole. Much like histovery, there are many great projects people are working on all around the world as we speak, but our lives are becoming increasingly distracted, we all have our own worries and responsibilities and maybe don’t take the time to catch up on every achievement from every part of the world. The world’s fair could do just that.