This is a Warning, not an Invitation

"Hey! Look at this virtual reality headset! If we spend enough time with these things, our world is going to be just like the world of Ready Player One!"

"Are you excited?"

"Of course!"

"...why?"

Ready Player One, regardless of whether you're referring to the book or the film, is a piece of dystopian science fiction. That means the world of Ready Player One sucks. It's not something we should aspire to emulate.

Ready Player One, and every other piece of dystopian fiction, is a warning, not an invitation.

Is it that hard to digest?

Look at where you come from, look at you now

In the ever-expanding landscape of technological progress and societal shifts, dystopian fiction has emerged as a powerful mirror reflecting our collective fears, anxieties, and cautionary tales about the future.

Works like George Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" have long served as harbingers of potential dystopian realities, urging readers to ponder the consequences of unchecked power, surveillance, and loss of individual freedoms.

There's nothing exciting about this.

However, it so appears that these cautionary tales have now been grossly misinterpreted by a way too many readers, thereby defeating the purpose entirely.

In an era where technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace, it is imperative for us to differentiate between what can be done and what should be done to prevent the nightmarish futures depicted in these tales from becoming a reality.

We, as a society, must learn to differentiate between possibility and prudence. What we can do is just as important and what we should do.

Dystopian fiction is not a call to embrace the darkness depicted within its pages but rather a call to action – a plea for vigilance against the allure of unchecked power and the erosion of individual freedoms.

The warnings contained within these narratives should serve as beacons, guiding us away from the precipice of dystopia. Humans ought to actively engage in conversations about ethics, responsibility, and the potential consequences of our actions to ensure that the nightmares of fiction do not materialize into our reality.

The power to prevent dystopia rests in our hands, and it is our duty to wield it wisely.

Will we though?

Comments

AnonymousMarch 31, 2024 at 8:57 PM
from one dystopia to another
what could possibly go wrong
jk I love this place
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

The History of Time Travel

The Time Machine (1960) If my affinity for limericks is a secret, it is a terribly kept one. I have even published one of my own (albeit of questionable quality), about monkeys and typewriters , on this very blog. One of my favourite limericks would almost certainly be There was a young lady of Wight, Who travelled much faster than light, She departed one day, In a relative way, And arrived on the previous night. I have no clue as to who the original author is, only a vague recollection of discovery in a Stephen Hawking book. In picture: Young lady of Wight There is nothing that science fiction loves more than stretching the commonplace observations of the world around us, if only to test the strengths of believability. It does this with space (as seen in teleportation, which I've already rambled about in the first post on this blog!). In classic Einstein fashion, we move on the the other aspect - time. Time travel has been a popular aspect of science fiction since the...

Thomas Edison and the Cyclicity of Pulp

The only thing more fascinating than pulp fiction is the contemporary commentary – condemnation? – of whatever genre it exemplifies at a given period of time, and the subsequent pedestal-perching of said genre by posterity. For this, of course, I use a more expansive definition of ‘pulp fiction’ than is generally recommended. Pulp fiction (as generally recommended) refers to stories published in pulp magazines, which were cheap, long-running fiction series printed on rough wood-pulp paper. ‘ Generally recommended ’ The pulp fiction I refer to is more all-encompassing: anything popular, cheap, aimed at a younger audience and ‘sensationalist’. (The last descriptor I dislike as an adjective for fiction; I believe it ought to restrict itself to journalism, where its services are necessary and its application plentiful, but I digress.) A better term might be contemporary fiction, but that flowery ornateness doesn’t quite capture the plosive gun-shotty decadence of good-for-nothing kids-the...

Shakespeare and Subjectivity (or the lack thereof)

“The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes.” The Comedy of Errors (Act 5, Scene 4) Shakespeare is no saint. All of his plays have a little something against our "modern values", and honestly, it's irrational to be surprised. The "Bard of Avon", inventor of most of modern vocabulary, lived from 1564 to 1616. Society four hundred years ago upheld different beliefs and ideals, some which we have retained today, but even more that we 'pooh-pooh' or find straight-up offensive. Elizabethan theatre was...quite a big deal Fiction is a reflection of fact, and fact is a reflection of fiction. When we bring up various issues in Shakespeare's works, are we critiquing the playwright, or the society he was lived in? Case in point: Merchant of Venice. Rampant antisemitism against Shylock the Jewish moneylender. When his daughter elopes and converts to Christianity, it is shown as a positive outcome and an ideal "happy ending". Portia, the oh-so-smar...

Tackling Absurdism

You are a complex and nuanced individual. You have layers to your personality. You meet multiple people daily, you have so many experiences. You have a story to tell, your interests, aspirations, hopes and dreams. You may sometimes feel like you're the most complicated being on earth. After all, you have so much going on, don't you? But so does everyone else. Everybody else has their own stories, problems, dreams. Everyone else thinks they're a complex person. And that's because they are. We live in a complex world, after all. All this, for what? What even are we, a swarming bunch of self-righteous, self-absorbed microbes on a rock in the middle of nowhere? What is the meaning of life? What's the point anyway? Every single action that happened since the beginning of the universe, right from the big bang, every slightest choice has led up to this - upto your reading this blogpost. The smallest difference would have changed this outcome vastly. Our present is a mosai...

Alien Communication: A Micro-Rant

The Drake equation is a (shock horror!) equation that allows one to calculate the probability of aliens in the Milky Way. It was formulated, not by Sir Francis Drake of late sixteenth-century world-circumnavigation fame, but by American astrophysicist and astrobiologist, Frank Donald Drake, in 1961. According to it, Number of civilisations in the Milky Way with whom communication is possible = Rate of star formation in Milky Way × Fraction of stars with planets × Avg number of planets capable of supported life per star-with-planet × Fraction of planets capable of life that actually develop life × Fraction of planets with life that develop intelligent life i.e., civili...

The History of Teleportation

T eleportation is an essential element of pop sci-fi, simply because we can all agree that waiting for our protagonist to travel for centuries across galaxies to fight the final battle would be quite a drag. Today, this fantastic form of transport is found amply, especially in video games, where they are often referred to as “Warps.” Wormholes are also picked as a convenient way for the bedazzling protagonist, but that’s a story for another day. The roots of teleportation, at least as it was first introduced to mankind, lies in the fantastical realm of imagination. Imagination! Tachypomp, and other books The first written mention of our hero can be found in a 1874 book, ‘Tachypomp’ where the titular device makes matter travel at an infinite speed. In 1877, The Sun published a short story from this very book called, The Man Without a Body, in which Edward Page Mitchell writes about ‘matter transfer’. A man apparently discovers how to rearrange the atoms of his cat’s body and send ...

Running out of Turing Tests

In his laconically named 1637 treatise, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences , René Descartes argued that while a mechanical body could imitate human behaviour if it so wished, true thought (therefore true being) was exclusive to the res cogitans – the thinking substance – which machines could never possess. One wonders if this was taken as a challenge, and (separately) if it was meant to be one. In the centuries to follow, mechanistic fantasies could only further proliferate the living world. Jacques de Vaucanson's grain-kernel-digesting-and-excreting duck from 1764, for instance – deft as it was in its intended simulation – marked the beginning of the hunt for the line between imitation and genuine cognition. An American artist's (incorrect) explanation for how the duck managed to eat and excrete grain. On inspection some half century down the line, a French illusionist concluded the it did not, as...

Venus in Fiction

O ver the years, our understanding of the universe has changed drastically with every scientific breakthrough paving the path to a clearer picture. Even today, there is much left to be known about our cosmos. But that’s of no consequence to our illustrious poets, writers and artists. They have the creative freedom to imagine a world which defies the laws of physics and can weave countless stories around it, turning it into a legend. Venus is one such world. Venusian Knowledge Today Today, any six-year-old would be only too happy to regale you with their knowledge of earth’s twin sister. Venus is the second planet from sun, they would tell you, with an all-knowing smirk, and it’s the hottest planet in the solar system, with a thick atmosphere full of carbon dioxide. Oh, and don’t you try to visit it, they add, warningly. It’s very unsuitable for life. Why does the six-year-old know so much? It’s because space agencies from around the globe have contributed ...

The Legendary Solar Eclipse

8th April, 2024. Not an ordinary day. It is the date of the full solar eclipse, that will pass over regions of North America. The sky will darken (I sound like a Nostradamus rip-off with an Internet connection, but bear with me), akin to dusk or dawn, and if one is lucky enough to have clear skies, the corona (outer atmosphere of the sun) should be visible in an awe-inspiring ring around the shadow of the moon. Truly a sight to behold Of course, not all visible things are meant to be seen. Not with naked eyes anyway. If you happen to be within the range of this celestial event, by all means, enjoy it - but with the necessary safety precautions in place. Looking at the sun in such a state (or otherwise, actually) directly, or through a telescope/camera/binocular lens is bound to cause severe, and oftentimes untreatable, eye injury. You have an excellent brain. Use it. Implement indirect means of viewing. Look at it through a pinhole camera, or safe solar viewing glasses...

2001: A Movie Review

This is from 1968? And I'm expected to believe that? July 20th, 1969. A truly astronomical feat of humankind. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people on the moon, as millions of folks watched, absolutely enraptured, from their TVs sets here on good ol' Earth. And, like most historic monuments in our scattered timeline of existence, popped up the omnipresent scatterbrains - the conspiracy theorists. Because, well, why shouldn't they? There's always an xkcd for that As I was doom scrolling through the Wikipedia article concerning itself with this delightful topic, one thing stuck out to me - a name . There was one singular name on the entire blasted index box. The name was Stanley Kubrick. It was fuzzily familiar, and a few quick clicks revealed why. The poor fellow had had the misfortune of directing a "cinematic masterpiece", a true trailblazer who walked so every other space movie could run - Stanley Kubrick was the director of 2001: ...

Only Red Herrings

Search This Blog