I recently re-watched a movie called Ready Player One. The movie is based on a book released in 2011. The movie later premiered in 2018 and was directed by Steven Spielberg. I first saw it in 3D when it came out. However, I was thinking of a movie to watch and this one popped in my mind. The movie takes place in the year 2045. The world is in shambles and people turn to virtual reality to escape the troubles of the real world. The virtual reality universe is called the OASIS. It was created by James Halliday. However, when he died, he left behind a challenge for the users of the OASIS. Whoever finds the easter egg in his game will inherit his shares in the company and the OASIS itself. An easter egg is a hidden object usually referred to in an electronic medium. There are three keys to unlock clues to find the easter egg. The movie consists of the main character, Wade Watts, and his friends working to find the egg. The villain in the story is a company called IOI who hires people to search for the egg but uses questionable methods to do so.
The OASIS was built because of how awful the world is. People wanted to escape their problems. Wade lives in the “stacks” which consist of motorhomes and various other things stacked on top of each other. People spend most of their time in the OASIS and do care much for real world possessions. If you die in the OASIS, you lose all the money and items you have acquired in the OASIS. One scene shows an avatar dying in the OASIS and then its creator in the real world trying to jump out of the building. This is to demonstrate how hooked people are to the OASIS. I could not imagine living the majority of my life in virtual reality. People only come out of the virtual world to sleep, eat, and go to the bathroom. In the OASIS, you can be whomever you would like. You can change anything about yourself and the rule is to never tell anyone in the OASIS your real identity. A person develops friendships and connections and yet no one knows each other’s name. Can this be considered a true connection if it is based on lies? I think it is a deluded version of reality and it is not healthy to live in virtual reality all of the time. I am mindful of the amount of time I spend with technology if it is not for school or work. Since the world revolves around technology, it is easy to let it consume you. Whether this is checking social media every two seconds or playing your favorite game for hours on end.
Since a person lives the majority of their life in the OASIS, the money earned in the OASIS can be used to buy stuff in the real world. Wade earns a lot of coins for finding the first clue to the easter egg and spends some of it in OASIS, it then arrives in a box in the real world. Could you imagine working in virtual reality universe to make money? This reminds me of cryptocurrency in a way. Most banking systems are online. Currency is becoming more digital. Cash is less common than it was. In the future, do you think cash will be used anymore? I can see cash not being used in the future. The world is becoming more digital so why not make money digital also. Amazon also makes it very easy to buy things online. Soon will online shopping be the majority of stores if it is not already?
The movie offers an interesting perspective of what the world could be like if people lived in virtual reality all the time. It mimics the real world, but in the end, it concludes that virtual reality is great but should be used with caution. I think this goes for all technology. Everything will have benefits, but there will always be downsides. In the virtual reality universe, everything is technology. A person cannot escape technology and it becomes their world. People get hooked on the OASIS and they forget about the great things in life such as human connection. Virtual games are great, but it is important to be mindful to have a balance of the real world and the virtual world.