Remote Miami Offers South Florida’s First Artificial Intelligence-Guided Tour

What’s wrong, Dave? Remember Hal, the creepy computer from the classic science fiction move, “2001: A Space Odyssey”? Fifteen years later, we have “Heather”:

New York, Paris, Berlin, São Paulo, Moscow and now Miami are the latest cities in the Remote X series, a collection of interactive, pedestrian-based live art play experiences hosted across the world. Remote Miami, presented by Rimini Protokoll and Questalive Productions, takes participants on a guided city expedition via headphones from an artificially intelligent (AI) source and synthetic voice that directs movement while observing from a distant remote location. It combines the elements of theatre, performance, guided tour, computer games and quest.

There are no chairs to sit in as participants take full part in the action. The events happen in real time where the city streets provide the set design while people passing by become the actors and the surrounding reality provides props. The performance is a fun and exhilarating game, as well as an intriguing mental exercise. Participants in the show, together with their computerized interlocutor, explore the city in stereo format discovering individuality, mortality, memory and the invasion of our mental geography by technology.

  The experience begins with the artificial intelligence voice Heather stating, “I am a computer generated voice. I normally help blind people reading news and emails. I don’t have a body. I don’t have a soul. I have no eyes, but I know where you are. I can do bad things to people without feeling guilty. Ha ha ha. Don’t worry. I will try to be your friend.”

  The two-hour Miami experience begins in the city’s oldest cemetery and finishes in a surprise Downtown Miami location area. With groups of up to 50, participants are immersed into another world surrounded by the soundscapes produced within the city. The headphones and verbal AI directions allow participants to gain a different perspective of the city as well as question their existence versus artificial intelligence reality.

Tickets are $32 for adults and $22 for students at Remote.Miami.

Miami Company Launches Trans Travel Brand

Transgender Vacations, based in Miami, now offers dedicated vacation programs for the transgender and cross-dressing communities, as well as their friends and families. Three years in development, the company has formed an alliance with Focus Diva, a division of the Focus Travel Group in the United Kingdom, to best service the community on a global level.

Stephanie Land, a transgender woman with 15 years of experience in travel planning and group travel, serves as director of transgender vacations, and Jennifer Grant, a member of the LGBT community and director of Focus Diva in the U.K., have developed the first niche-focused travel platform serving the transgender community.

“We, as part of the LGBT community, offer insight and specialized knowledge, a ‘familial’ comfort and confidence, as well as a fantastic range of products that is unparalleled. Booking with us, travel agents and members of the community are assured that we understand the challenges that transgender travelers face and that we are their ultimate resource and ambassador every step of the way to deliver their ultimate holidays.” said Grant in a release announcing the partnership.

The company is offering a seven night European river cruise down the Danube in October for $2099 per person, not including airfare. For more information, go to TransgenderVacations.com.

Orlando, Fort Lauderdale Top “Staycation” List

To help Americans find the best staycation spots in the U.S. — and the ones worth leaving home for — personal finance website WalletHub conducted a survey of the 150 largest cities across 28 key metrics.

The data set included metrics including movie and bowling costs, golf courses, frozen-yogurt shops and spas per capita, and the cost of house-cleaning services.

The best cities for staycations include:

1. Orlando, Fla.

2. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

3. Tampa, Fla.

4. Salt Lake City, Utah

5. Scottsdale, Az.

6. Atlanta, Ga.

7. Las Vegas, Nev.

8. Minneapolis, Minn.

9. St. Petersburg, Fla.

10. Honolulu, Hawaii

The cities that fared worst include:

141. Fremont, Calif.

142. Chesapeake, Va.

143. Los Angeles, Calif.

144. Fresno, Calif.

145. Fort Worth, Texas

146. Yonkers, N.Y.

147. Santa Ana, Calif.

148. New York, N.Y.

149. Oxnard, Calif.

150. Chula Vista, Calif.

Among the crucial revelations in WalletHub’s staycation survey:

Orlando boasts the most ice cream and frozen yogurt shops per 100,000 residents (57.15), 13 times more than Detroit, the city with the fewest (4.31).

New York City, which finished a surprising 148th overall, has the highest beauty salon costs ($66.18), nearly three times Fort Wayne, Ind. ($22.42). That’s a number the Hoosiers in Fort Wayne need to to work on.

For more information about the report, go to WalletHub.com.