THE CONTROL OF VIRTUAL WORLDS BY COMPANIES, FROM CYBERPUNK SCIENCE FICTION TO THE NOVEL READY PLAYER ONE

Abstract

Science fiction reflects technoscientific capitalism. Since the era of cyberpunks, many stories
have been based on what happens when very powerful companies take on the role of States
and control the population. This article compares this form of discourse on capitalism and
Ernest Cline’s novel Ready Player One. It highlights how the cult of high performance became
increasingly important to a population of innovators who were defining the visions and strategies of the most powerful companies. William Gibson’s science fiction megacorporations are
inspired by the Japanese zaibatsu, which fascinated the American author. Such SF explores
capitalism through metaphorical fantasy, revealing the aspirations and fears of a generation
of entrepreneurs and consumers who were fascinated by cyberspace in the 1980s and
virtual reality followed by metaverses in the 1990s
. In technoscientific capitalism, the future
is presented in a dystopic imaginary form to oppose a tendency towards the accumulation of
considerable power by multinationals. Even though antitrust laws are supposed to avoid it,
the imaginary future is presented as the worst possible scenario: a world in which capitalism
has finally marginalized the role of States and handed over power to the most innovative structures. The novel Ready Player One, published in 2011, describes the struggle for control of
the virtual world, OASIS, after the death of its creator. The battle is between users who seek to establish a libertarian utopia and IOI, the big company, that wants to establish an elitist and
undemocratic order. While some companies provide positive goods, have charismatic leaders
and work to improve the happiness of humanity, others are presented in a very negative light:
hungry for power and desperate to use innovations for dystopian purposes. Several examples
of companies illustrate how science fiction plays a critical role in capitalism as such imagery
structures the representations of the future in the public mind and will play a role in people
choosing to become innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders of capitalism. It is important to
understand how such fiction contributes to ethical capitalism which resembles technological
utopianism and can have an impact on the dynamics of the economy.