The Thing Power of the Haptic Suit

The people of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2011) give things a lot of power in their lives and tend to ignore things like the environment or real life. Before we delve into the thing power and the analysis of the book, we might as well give you a brief summary of the book if you have not read it before.

Ready Player One Book Cover 

ready-player-one-11.jpg

The story opens on a world that is devastated by political issues, social issues, environmental issues, and everything else that you could imagine to be wrong. The people in this society rely on something called the OASIS, which is an online virtual reality that simulates real life because it has politics, an economy, a public school system as well as fantasy things like magic and advanced technology seen in Star Wars and other SciFi worlds. Wade Watts is the main character and an orphan who lives with his aunt. However, when he becomes the first person to find the first key in Jim Halliday's death bed competition, he opens himself up for a lot of hardships within the OASIS and in real life. IOI, a corporation who wants to take control of the OASIS, threatens Wade by saying if he does not help them, they will kill him. They make good on their promise by blowing up his trailer that has many people inside. Luckily, Wade snuck out before then and is in his hideout safely on the ground. By losing the little family he has left, Wade starts out on the adventure of a life time to find the rest of these keys and the final prize, Halliday's Easter Egg, which gives the person who finds it control of the OASIS and the fortune left behind by Halliday. This is should give you a very brief gist of what happens in the book, if you want to know more, go ahead and read it! (or watch the movie, I guess) 

In order to have a more realistic experience in the OASIS, people who have a little more money can get these things called 'haptic suits.' These suits allow for the player to feel the pressure, movements, and different senses that their avatar would feel in the OASIS. In my mind, a haptic suit looks like an astronaut's space suit (see below), but maybe a little less bulky and the helmet is more like virtual reality goggles.

My Idea of a Haptic Suit 

https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/11-things-you-might-not-know-about-tim-peakes-spacesuit/

The Ready Player One movie does not show these suits to look like an astronaut suit, but when we get to "thing power," it will make more sense. Look below to see how the movie depicts these suits. 

A Ready Player One Haptic Suit

https://www.slashgear.com/holosuit-makes-ready-player-ones-haptic-suit-a-reality-02536386/

Now that all of Ready Player One and the existence of the haptic suit is established, we can talk about new materialism and the real purpose of this blog post. The haptic suit is important because I think that the world gives these suits so much power. Jane Bennett (2010) defines thing power as "the curious ability of inanimate things to animate, act, and produce effects that are dramatic or subtle." This definition then brings about 4 important 'A' words that go into thing power and the action. (I apologize for all of the definitions in advance, but they're important.) 

1. actant: this has no specific will or determination. It doesn't require conatus (or an active impulse).
2. actor: this has intentionality and is more active in the action.
3. agent: someone who acts
4. agency: having the ability to affect.

The most important 'A' word to remember here is agency because according to Jane Bennett (2010), things have agency and the person using the thing is the agent. These things can go through demystification so that we can make them more transparent than they actually are and this can be done with the haptic suit. This creates the thing's assemblage ("the ad hoc groups of diverse elements of vibrant materials of all sorts.")

https://www.rakuten.com/shop/unique-bargains/product/s17050900wm0021/

As the magnifying glass says, let's break down the history of the haptic suit. As people began to use the OASIS more and more, they wanted a way to be more interactive and feel even more as if they were in this virtual world and not reality. This created the idea to make something that could take all of a person's senses out of the real world and into the OASIS, so an idea was the first step. The design itself needed to come from something that was full body and that is why I think the original haptic suits looked like the astronaut space suits with the wires and suction cups that connect to the body and nerves. This suit adapted over time to be the suits that people wear in Ready Player One that you can see above. These suits became more spandex like and fit right over the skin. We can see that when Wade describes taking one off in the second part of the book. He says that he has to peel the suit off, but be careful enough so that he does not ruin the inside of the suit (Cline 2011). 

The suit itself helps to create the dystopian society by taking the person outside of the real world more so than they could before. It has helped in the degradation of the environment and society by allowing someone to completely submerse themselves away from the true problems of the world. 

The suit itself relates to the gloves, goggles, and electronics that all work together to create realistic feelings. The human inside of the haptic suit is the agent using the object and giving it the ability to have the effects that it does. 

This object does not have the ability to speak or act on its own, but when connected to the world of the OASIS, as said before, it creates feelings that are so real that some people may not be able to distinct the fake world from the real one. 

Finally, the invention of the haptic suit was an important one for this society. It created a larger separation between those who had money and those who didn't because it is an expensive investment to add to the OASIS. It also creates environments. In the case of Wade, he is no longer in his dark, one room apartment when he wears the suit and is on the OASIS. 

OASIS Logo 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/427208714646635366/

Overall, the haptic suit was not always something that was attainable for Wade and may not have even been apart of his quest. However, after finding the first key, a door was opened for Wade in the OASIS and real life because he finally had money that was in his control. He used it to invest in equipment that would aid in his quest and that investment included the haptic suit. Not even just one suit, but two so that he could trade one out when it was dirty. He used the suit to give himself an experience as close to real life as if he actually went out into the world and did it himself. This experience allowed for him to then come to the conclusion, at the end, that he might just exit out of the OASIS every now and then to get something out of life beyond the virtual world. 

*Author's Note
To give this book an honest review, I wasn't really feeling it at the beginning. It did not have things that interested me, but as the story and action picked up, my interest grew. I wound up enjoying the adventure that Wade went on even if I wasn't a fan of the characters themselves. The book is not that long and an easy read, but if you'd prefer, you can watch the movie (Find trailer here). Do be advised that the movie and book are VERY different, plot and everything. Therefore, do proceed with caution!

References

Bennett, Jane. 2010. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Duke University Press. 

Cline, Ernest. 2011. Ready Player One. New York: Crown Publishers.