I attended a immersive theater piece in Petaluma, with Romeo and Juliet taking place in a national park. It was well-done, but underdelivered on the 'immersive' aspect, reminding me of my disappointment with Sleep No More.There, action happened everywhere, and you found it. Here, action moved, and you followed it. Neither truly capture the promise of immersive theater, as I see it - they merely move around where the action is happening.True immersion requires interactivity. Have the actors interact with the audience, make them part of the play. Hard to scale, hard to tailor, but far more interesting.I also caught the Exploratorium Strandbeest exhibit on its last day. Dutch artist Theo Janssen envisioned artificial beasts moving sand into dunes to protect the Netherlands from rising water, but over 25 years of iterative evolution, decided he'd rather build an animal that could roam on it's own indefinitely.His beests are incredible, otherworldly things that turn the wind into walking crankshaft feet, complete with pneumatic nerves that can detect soft sand, surf, and how many steps it's taken. All with only PVC pipe!Reminds me of Douglas Hofstader's I Am A Strange Loop, questioning what it takes for something to think. If it know how to walk and not drown and remember steps, what's left?!