Ready Player One is a movie that flew under the radar a couple of years ago. That’s surprising given that its source material is a well-known novel, it was directed by Steven Spielberg, featured appearances by a number of iconic fictional characters and was full of action and top-notch special effects. More importantly, it has themes that are relevant to today.
In it, most people interact with each other through a virtual world called the OASIS. This OASIS can either be used to manipulate people and get them to behave however the person in control would like or it could be used to allow people to connect with friends around the world, or to create and collaborate, helping each other to solve problems and improve the world for everyone.
That might sound a little familiar, especially if you’ve been following TARTLE for a while. Social media is much like a proto-OASIS in that many people form some of their deepest friendships with people they first meet on their phones. In fact, there are growing numbers of people who get married after first getting to know each other through social media. And there are numerous collaborations that are possible only because of social media and the internet. This runs the gamut from media companies, to music, to research. Just a couple examples include the band Gorillaz. Its members never met in real life before making their first album, they made their music by sharing files on the internet. In the world of research, people can literally donate processing power on their computers to process data for NASA, including information from the SETI program (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). TARTLE itself couldn’t exist without the internet since much of our team works remotely.
Unfortunately, just as with the OASIS, there are plenty of people interested in using social media and all aspects of the internet as a tool for manipulation. Such people only see others as part of the system, a part to be bent to their will and for their own benefit. They see data points instead of fellow humans. And these – let’s call them controllers – have a vast amount of control over everything that we see and hear in addition to being able to observe from afar everywhere we go online, and even much of what we say if we speak within range of a smart device.
In Ready Player One, there is a simple plot device – whoever finds a mysterious Easter egg will gain control of the OASIS. If the right person finds it, the OASIS will be what it was meant to be, a tool to lift people up. In the real world it isn’t quite so simple. Restoring the internet to its original promise will be much more difficult than just finding a convenient Easter egg. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of people supporting each other.
That’s more than a policy, or even an outlook, it’s a movement. TARTLE’s purpose is to build, support and propel that movement. We are more than just a way to get paid for sharing your data, we’re a way to encourage companies and even governments to remember that there are real people behind all those data points. That happens when they approach you, the individual instead of just sifting through a sea of anonymous data.
None of this is to say that companies shouldn’t be using these tools to make an honest buck. Obviously, equipment and labor need to be paid for, and the people putting up the resources deserve something back for taking the initial risk. Profit itself isn’t the problem, the problem is a mentality that sees only profit, that sees everyone as a lever to pull or a button to push to increase that profit.
TARTLE seeks to recruit people into the movement to take back the digital realm from the controllers, to reclaim our OASIS as a means to improve the lives of everyone instead of just a few. In this movement, you are the key, you are the Easter egg that can save the OASIS. So, are you ready to play?
What’s you data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
