So, now, it’s official. The general goal of technology is to allow you never to leave your house.

It’s not just those robot things. Today, Google announced its Art Project to bring the world’s great museums to a computer screen near you:

They’re taking Street View inside the Tate, the Met, MoMA, the National Gallery and the Museo Reina Sofia and the Palace of Versailles and many more. You can get your cultural fix and never leave your bedroom, or Starbucks, or wherever you happen to be online.

Here’s a video showing what it’s like in the Virtual Tate:

Okay, though, it’s not really like the real thing. You can’t get the real experience online. You don’t really sense the textures, see the true color (or lack thereof), get a true sense of proportion.

Yet.

Maybe someday, you’ll get the whole virtual immersive museum experience, right down to the “suggested donation,” the long queues at the really famous works, the hygenically-challenged art students taking notes in spiral notebooks, the family with the kids that won’t stop whining, the guy who won’t stop yammering on his cell phone, and the hallway that abruptly ends in a fire exit and leaves you wondering where you are. Although even the most mundane parts of museum life sometimes get captured in the Google web:

Peek-a-boo, ma’am. You can’t hide from the Googleverse.

Visit the Google Art Project by clicking here.

Image: Google