You can't escape Windows error messages in this augmented reality nightmare

They promised us beauty. They said the sky was the limit. They told us that how we interact with the world would change in profound, innumerable ways.

They never said anything about Windows error messages shitting all over our augmented reality dreams. And yet, surprise surprise, that is exactly where we find ourselves.

Apple's ARKit has put AR in the hands of developers around the world, and what they choose to create will shape the layer of artificial reality being built brick by digital brick atop our shared meatspace. Thanks to iOS developer Henry Everett, we now know what some of those bricks look like.

And, oh boy, are they frightening — but, like, in the way a terrible acid trip is just before the panic hits.

Everett managed to bring a classic Windows operating system error into the AR space, layering popup window atop popup window as he moved through his office. It's quite a thing to behold.

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We reached out to the developer with the intention of finding out what motivated him to create such an interactive nightmare, and he explained that it's all about nostalgia.

"I was inspired by the good old days of Windows XP to recreate the horror of cascading error messages," Everett noted over Twitter direct message. "It was really fun to run around the office leaving behind a trail of errors."

And it's fun for us, too. So much fun, in fact, that all we can do is replay the 42-second clip over and over — steeling ourselves for a future where digital error messages crowd our line of sight, leaving us to pray for a quick blue screen of death just to end it all.

It's a thing of terrifying hellscapeian wonder, and we're totally here for it.