Aestheticus, Ellen Dissanayake calls making special the ecstatic lift brought by art. It is this apex that forms the foundation of the trust required to actually allow the stimulation of a motor response. Hence, we observe that aesthetic facilities are intimately related to the actual conveyance of trust between individual people.

One might now wonder how aesthetic needs translate into some technical manifestation that will actually impact the transcendent personal device. Surely we are talking about something a bit more profound than whether the device is red or blue or whether it uses a set of wire connected headphones or a Bluetooth earphone. Indeed, we suggest that this particular need goes a bit deeper than such superficial characteristics. In fact, aesthetic needs form the base stimuli for engaging in external interactions. We will elaborate this point in greater detail in our last chapter, but at this point it will help if we inject a direct association with an aesthetic genre; that of theatre. On the way to the theatre, let’s take the trail that leads by the flight school.

As an art form, theatre encompasses the full range of human interactions. We might characterize theatre as a flight simulator for interactions. A flight simulator allows a pilot or a pilot in training, to engage in seemingly real-world interactions. The simulator presents a very close approximation to the full sensori-motor experience of a person in an airplane. Information is provided to the pilot through all the same facilities found in an actual airplane in flight and the pilot in turn can affect the performance of the simulated airplane through the same controls found in a real airplane. With a good hydraulic system underlying the simulator, physical manifestations of airplane motion can be closely simulated. Thus, a slight simulator allows a pilot in training to learn how to fly an airplane. It allows an experienced pilot to gain additional experience without enduring the risks of actual flight. It is certainly better to attempt to learn how to compensate for all the engines of an airplane ceasing to work in a simulator than in an actual airplane in flight. Surviving multiple crash landings in a simulator is routine while walking away from a single crash landing in the real world is problematic. Of course, one can then ask, “How does one know the difference between a simulator and the real thing?”

We draw the attention of the reader to the classic science fiction book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Through the course of the book, a young boy known as Ender Wiggin is identified as a prospective military commander to engage in an ongoing war with an insect-like race known as the Formics. Through many years of training at Battle School and subsequently at Command School, Ender displays an aptitude for battle strategy and tactics. In a series of final examination mock battles engaged through a simulator, Ender prevails in the face of overwhelming odds. After the last such mock battle, Ender finds that in fact he was in command of an army of humans engaged in an actual battle near the Formics home world. To win the ostensibly mock battle, Ender had engaged in asymmetric practices, outside the accepted norms of combat. In essence, by breaking out of the mold of physical ecosystem interaction in what he perceived to be a simulation, he was able to prevail in an actual battle. The lesson we draw from this anecdote is the tenuous nature of reality when the complete sensori-motor experience can be manipulated. This, we suggest, is the realm of aesthetic appetites in the transcendent personal device, which in turn brings us back to our original reference to theatre.

Theatre as an art form is directly aimed at manipulation of the sensori-motor experience of the observer with the expressed intent of effecting highly structured interaction environments. From our experiences derived from the interactions that we observe, we learn about the mechanics of interaction and the assessment of potential outcomes. In essence, we learn about the evaluation of what we have previously called the trust equation of interactions. Hence, we suggest that in addressing the aesthetic needs of the individual, the aesthetic facilities of the transcendent

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