If I were to choose a fictional piece of media to be added to my DCI-180 course, I would select Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. This dystopian setting takes place in 2045, where the majority of people live in a digital world. Humanity has decimated the Earth through overpopulation, which, in turn, has led to mass poverty. As a result, people take refuge in an online universe called “Oasis.” This virtual videogame allows people to escape the horrors of reality and live through their online personas and characters. This ideology deeply resonates with the themes of our current course, DCI-180, which addresses topics such as “online identity, privacy, democracy, and the academic web” along with how we, as Internet users, play roles as digital selves, consumers, and creators. The dystopian society of Ready Player One addresses many of these topics.
In the novel, Wade Watts (whose username is Parzival online) lives to advance his online identity. In the real world, he is what most people would view as a nobody, as he lives in a dumpy trailer with little family left. However, online, he is an advanced fantasy character, capable of changing his aesthetic, purchasing majestic weaponry, and accomplishing intimidating boss fights. In other words, Watts online identity is completely separate and different from his actual persona and real-life presentation of himself.
Additionally, as the plot progresses and Watts gains attention for his online achievements, his privacy is compromised. Before long, an antagonistic organization known as Innovative Online Industries (iOi) locates the protagonist’s real-world coordinates and plants a bomb near his trailer. This is not unlike reality, in which the authorities are frequently called on innocent Internet streamers by viewers and predatory people stalk their victims in real life through technological use.
Furthermore, while the United States, a democratic nation, is able to facilitate and regulate the Internet to an extent, Oasis strips users of any right to vote or edit the virtual world. Players are not given any voice or say as to the direction of the game. Its “private” owner even reserves the right to shut down the simulation with the slap of a button. Although this is unlike today’s world, it could become a reality in the future. The novel links to the theme of democracy as it makes students question whether or not societal situations like this, or pieces of it, could be plausible by 2045.
Finally, in addition to being an entertainment platform, Oasis also offers a public education system that is free to all students. This is an interesting idea. In the present day, some institutions are based solely online so their students can enroll from anywhere in the world. However, many of these are for-profit organizations. This topic has and will continue to prompt many questions. Could an “academic web” be merged into a singular, virtual world? Is it possible for all courses, from elementary school to graduate programs be taught purely online?
By now, it is evident that all of the themes addressed in DCI-180 manifest themselves in Ready Player One and prompt thought conversations about the future of digital environments. This is not unlike The Circle, another fictious novel we have read in class. In both stories, the protagonists are engulfed in a fantasy that slowly overtakes the world, in that Oasis and the Circle companies both control what people see, how they live, etc. Since this novel and relevant discussions heavily focus on programming and videogames, I would probably task DCI-180 students with creating their own simulation that may or may not be similar to Oasis. While this may sound daunting, there are numerous platforms that simplify this process. Scratch, for example, is “a block-based visual programming language and online community targeted primarily at children.” This government-funded organization is a simple introduction to basic programming and allows users to create their own projects with ease. This assignment would show students how easy to is to create a virtual universe and enables them to share their own thoughts on the future through a visual, imaginative, and creative online engine.
Cline, Ernest. Ready Player One. Penguin Random House LLC., 2011.
“About.” Scratch, 2019, https://scratch.mit.edu/about.
“About This Class.” DCI 180 Black Mirrors and Digital Culture, 2019, https://dci180.wludci.info/.
