Virtual Revolution

There has been a limited screening (just a single session) of this film (Virtual Revolution) in the American Cosmograph. The review in their monthly booklet was rather good, so it seemed like a good candicate for my first visit to the cinema in this new year.

Let's start by the bad parts. I guess the film was done on a pretty low budget, and the effects and imagery show that. The acting is poor in general, the characters are rather uninteresting, the aesthetics are a bit poor (the idea of a Paris-Metropolis is nice, but the result could have been better), the story is weak... but I still think that it deserves a watch. Why then?

Because the main idea is pretty good. Years ago I was almost obsessed with films/stories about virtual reality (Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor). This film adds an extra twist to the "disconnect from the real world and enjoy a virtual lie" utopia/dystopia. Here people connect voluntarily to the virtual reality (OK, it's nothing new, while in Matrix or most people were unaware of being out of reality, in The Thirteenth Floor people connect voluntarily), and this is encouraged by the government. This is the interesting part, this is not Matrix, the connected people are not producing energy or anything for the state, so why is it still promoting it?

Well, one case if obvious. There are people that are considered hybrids, they spend part of their time in the real world, they work and have a normal life, and then they connect to the virtual world in search of the pleasure they can not find in the real world. Sure all of us know someone that to a certain extent does that with World o f Warcraft and similars. This kind of hybrid is the perfect solution for a government to avoid discontent and protests. If your salary does not allow you to fulfill your basic aspirations (travelling, a decent house, a certain respect or recognitiion from others) you can get it in the virtual reality, and as long as you get it there you'll remain calm, will not revolt and the machine will continue to work. Indeed, this kind of virtual reality plays a role similar to the one of religion in the past. People would manage to endure a painful existence thinking about the other life.

The second case is not so obvious. There is a second kind of connected folks, the ones that spend almost their whole time connected. Basically they do nothing in the real world, just eat (badly) so that their body can still work and continue to connect. So, if they do not produce anything, and even cause some expenses to the state that is giving them some minimum housing and feeding, why are they useful for the state?

I can think of several reasons:
Let's assume that there is a level from which unemployment and non active population can not go lower, due to structural issues in the economic system, folks working in types of jobs that have been made obsolete by technological advances and that can no longer adapt to a new profession, disabled people or people with some small disability (physical, psycological...) that in reallity prevents them from finding or keeping a job... If this people spend their life in a virtual work their economical needs are pretty low, so the state can give them a pretty minimum salary and they will not complain as they are happy in their alternate reallity. Furthermore, their unhealthy lifestyle (poor diet, no physical excercise, no care about conducting regular analysis or visiting the doctor before things turn serious...) will notably reduce their life expectacy, so they will not be living off the state for too long.

Our planet is already overpopulated and population growth has not done but to increase. Any smart government knows this and knows how a big threat it is to humanity, but there are no easy solutions. Trying to impose the Chinese "1 child policy" at a global level would cause massive revolts. One option would be to reduce the fertility of the population by means of toxic elements in diet (it's already happening with sperm quality), but this would work at a global level, it would sound better to reduce the fertility of only certain population groups (and allow the intellectual elites to reproduce freely). The virtual reality options is simple and effective. The folks that decide to live in a virtual world and turn their back on reallity are not going to find a partner and start a family in the real life, so you've found a pretty good way of applying a "0 child policy" to a sector of the population characterized by not being particularly smart (indeed we could say that it's a pure example of natural selection)