(Photo via Clker-Free-Vector-Images at Pixabay)
Ready Player One takes place in 2044 where the world is in shambles due to an immense energy crisis. The novel focuses on a teenage boy named Wade who finds refuge in a virtual reality utopia called the OASIS, created by his idol, James Halliday. Halliday promises his billion-dollar fortune to anyone who can find an easter egg hidden within the OASIS.
Wade sets off to solve the first step, finding the Copper Key to unlock the first gate, and he succeeds. Due to the magnitude of the prize, Wade encounters others that wish to win Halliday’s fortune themselves, and they’re willing to do anything to get it.
The OASIS: Utopia or Dystopia?
(Photo via Rikki Chan on Unsplash)
The OASIS is an entire virtual reality world. Schools can take place here, shopping, and even businesses. The OASIS shelters anyone that uses it from any real-world contact. To some, like Wade, this makes the OASIS a utopia in itself. A utopia by the standard definition is often described as a perfect or near perfect living society.
However, I feel that the OASIS is far from a utopian society. During Wade’s journey to find the easter egg, he’s bribed by a corporate menace, the IOI, to show them where the first gate is and ultimately lead them to the prize. They offer that he “can retire at age eighteen and spend the rest of [his] days living like royalty. Or [he] can die in the next few seconds.”(pg. 155). In a utopian world, I don’t feel that this bribe or type of offer would be sanctioned.
Is this future that far off?
As I discussed in my last blog post, the far-fetched ideas of the future that we all seem to have, really may not be that far away. New technology is advancing at an exponential rate, and depletion of fossil fuels is very much a real thing, much like in Ready Player One. In 2044, “Earth had other concerns. The ongoing energy crisis, catastrophic climate change, poverty, and disease.”(pg 1) ravaged the world. These issues aren’t unrealistic, and we hear more of the potential damage they could to do the world each day.
Regarding the OASIS, we already have a lot of virtual reality technology, and it gets more accessible every day. In Wade’s world, he has an “OASIS console, haptic gloves, and visor.”(pg 25) In our world, there’s already virtual reality visors, gloves, and consoles being sold, such as the Oculus Rift. We already have the type of equipment Wade has and his world takes place 27 years in the future. It’s mindblowing to think that the future we imagine, is already here.
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