I’ll never be ‘Ready Player One’

Last night, I felt deeply disturbed and upset, after watching a movie.

Spielberg, who has an amazing track record of directing highly entertaining movies with a healthy hint of morality and artistic value, seems to have produced, what is in my opinion, a corrupted “sell-out”.

“Ready Player One” sets the stage as an amazing opportunity to warn us of the risks of diving deeply into the MetaVerse. It was recommended to me by a friend, in response to my recommendation of Gamer, a less known and extremely violent movie that delivers brutally honest (and refreshingly biased) cautionary commentary on the unhealthy patterns that the internet invites us to indulge in.

Instead, however, Spielberg’s production (which I doubt he personally directed with the same level of involvement as many of his past works) promotes the following conclusions, that I find deeply disturbing, and passionately disagree with:

• Those holding guns cannot be fought, even by an entire crowd (of cowards, clearly).
• Only the police can balance the power of guns, and we can trust them to arrest the bad guys, regardless of how rich they are (seriously?). Disclaimer: I love the police force and feel safe around them, but I have no illusions about the ultra-rich being subject to the same law enforcement as the rest of us.
• Virtual objects in the MetaVerse have real monetary value in the real world (oh please! – and yes, do debate me on this, I understand that this conversation goes deep and I still trust in my final conclusion).
• The challenges that society faces because of the MetaVerse can be solved inside the MetaVerse. To me, this is the most disturbing of all, and the reason I wrote this post. Teaching our younger generation that they CAN solve real world issues by winning games in a virtual world is setting us up for a LOT of trouble and a very ugly reality, in the near future.

Ultimately, this movie feels to me like a highly corrupted piece of well-produced entertainment that was most probably influenced and funded by Meta or Microsoft leaders, possibly under the metaphorical table.

Although it is still presented as Sci-Fi today, have no illusions that the MetaVerse (aka the Matrix, a far better movie with wildly opposing moral conclusions) is coming quickly to occupy a large place in our world.

Even though it is arguably “real” because it is perceivable and does exist in our physical universe, I think that we should be extremely careful with this new, powerful technology.

Putting in the hands of the ultra-rich the ability to create and sell unlimited real estate, set their own rules (even more than before) and distract people from the immediate realities that we should be focused on (1984 anyone?)… these are all things that I do not wish to subscribe to.

Like many others, I regret investing in BitCoin, and moving forward, I will remember to stay loyal to my conclusion of no VR, no MetaVerse investments and more time outdoors and contributing to real world projects!