Let's talk about immortality for a minute. In a video game, you have an infinite amount of lives and do-overs. In real life, you have one chance and when it's your time to go then you're just gone. But, are we really gone? Some people will argue that if a person is physically not here on this earth, then they are gone. Others know that a person can live on through their memories of the people that they left behind. This is exactly what we are doing now and what Halliday, and every other famous person, does before they kick their metaphorical bucket. Halliday programmed his own avatar, Anorak, to continue to live in the OASIS even after he died. You may just think this means nothing because he is still dead in reality. Well, the reality is that everybody spends just about every minute of their reality in the virtual reality that this dead man created. I believe if people still continue to speak of your legacy you after you pass on, you are, in a way, immortal. Halliday programmed his own avatar, Anorak, to continue to live in the OASIS even after he died. "For years gunters had speculated that Anorak still roamed the OASIS, now as an autonomous NPC. Halliday's ghost in the machine." (p.84) Usually, people who are famous, immortalize themselves in their work. Halliday wasn't any different. He even created an entire competition to pass on his legacy. This is specifically how Halliday achieved immortality. In what way could Wade achieve immortality?
I thought your take on immortality was really interesting. In my opinion, someone who is not just remembered, but is also still affecting people and their actions today is still alive in a way. James Halliday would definitely fit that description because of the OASIS and his egg hunt. In the same way, that would make other people who are deceased but still influential, such as Shakespeare and Elvis, still alive. If Wade somehow finds a way to win the egg hunt and the prizes that come with it, he could also become immortalized based off of how or if he changes the OASIS, and what he does with the inherited riches of Halliday.
ReplyDeleteThere is a pretty famous quote that says essentially the same thing. It goes "They say you die twice, first when you stop breathing, and second, when someone says your name for the last time". It really shows that people are often more than just a sack of meat, but a memory or idea that can go on to affect the world even more after they're dead than when they were alive. This is often shown through the concept of martyrdom, where peoples circumstances of death echo through history longer than their physical lives could ever possibly hope to achieve.
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