When we text each other we use acronyms and abbreviations like OMG and LOL to convey meaning and emotion. And then there’s IRL – In Real Life. We use that to signal that we know the difference between the digital universe and reality.

Online, you can play a first-person-shooter game with other people. In real life, you can join the US military and learn to use an M4 assault rifle. It’s the standard issue weapon designed to shoot and kill enemy combatants. It doesn’t get much more IRL than that. Right?

Well, not exactly. You see, it turns out that buying guns and ammo to train soldiers for combat is expensive. Training soldiers on simulated weapons is cheaper. And you can hook up a simulated weapon to digital equipment that gives trainers all kinds of information about the trainee’s performance.

Here's the thing, though. You can make a fake gun that looks, feels and makes a noise like a real assault weapon, but it doesn’t actually perform like an assault weapon. Because when you fire it, it doesn’t kick back.

Or at least it didn’t, until Hahnville High graduate Kyle Monti invented and wrote the patent for the Electromagnetic Recoil System. This technology now forms the basis of Kyle’s New Orleans company, Haptech. Haptech creates warfighter training technology. In 2023 the company was awarded an $11m contract to develop weapon simulators for the US Army and Marine Corps.

The entertainment industry also seems determined to blur the line between the digitally delivered universe and IRL. In the movie theater, and in what we now call home theater, visual effects and sophisticated sound systems are designed to give us an immersive experience. The creators of the content and the hardware want to make us feel like we’re really there - whether that’s on a football field or another planet.

It hasn’t always been this way. If you’re old enough, you might remember going to Blockbuster and renting a movie on videocassette, which you’d bring home and play on a small TV with a single small speaker. If you were immersed in anything back then, it was the fun you were having watching the movie with your friends or family.

Eden Chubb is trying to bring that kind of immersive experience back. Her Garden District store, Future Shock Video, has over 2,000 titles on VHS and DVD that you can rent by the week.

Kyle's digital weapons business and warfighter training technology might tempt us to say, “This is not your grandfather’s New Orleans.” But, actually, Haptech's office is on Andrew Higgins Boulevard. Whether that’s coincidence or intentional, it makes the point that New Orleans is no stranger to innovative military design and manufacturing.

And when we’re talking about Eden's movie rental business, there’s no doubt - it’s intentionally your grandfather’s New Orleans.

These two folks couldn’t be in much more unrelated types of businesses, but they’re both making equally unique contributions to the economy and lifestyle of our unique city.

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.

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