In 2011, Ernest Cline Published his best-selling science fiction novel "Ready Player One." Since then it has become a New York Times bestseller, translated into 20 different languages with a motion picture adaption currently in theaters. "1984" was a book written at a time when everyone was paranoid that the government would be watching their every move. Now that this is a reality, authors and film producers are turning their sites on the newest technological threat to society. Virtual reality.

The plot of "Ready Player One" is fairly simplistic. The United States has been ravaged by climate change and widening wage gaps aided by the disappearance of the middle class have turned the United States into a third world country. The protagonist, Wade Wyatts, plays an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) for a good portion of his adolescence. The MMO or "Oasis" as it is so called is the last frontier for mankind. The last place left to be traveled and explored at one's leisure. When the games creator dies, a scavenger hunt begins to find a hidden easter egg in the game that will allow users to take over the company and gain access to the creator's fortune (Think Tron Legacy meets Willy Wonka).

While the film is intended to be a sci-fi-action adventure film, its modern context bares more sinister undertones. Today, virtual reality is being utilized on a more massive scale than ever before. Videos of VR chat streams with Ugandan knuckles are all over Youtube. Horror Games utilizing the Occulus Rift are all the rage. We even have VR pornography now. While VR might sound exciting as technology advances, consider this. VR technology is based primarily on the idea of immersion. Most VR games are simulations and in VR chat you can choose an avatar and become whoever or you want to be. But what if technology advanced to the point where your simulated reality was created by your thoughts? Furthermore, what if the technology became so advanced that it could bridge the gap between reality and simulation? This is important because as technology advances, we become less involved with one another. IMVU, Pokemon Go, Second life, VR Chat, all of them prompt us to embrace technology rather than physical interactions. If there is one thing this film can teach us, it's that talking to people and being genuine shouldn't be taken for granted as technological advancements make physical interactions more and more of a rarity.