Virtual Wiles: A Novel by Martin T. Ingham

 When I first began work on Virtual Wiles, I sought to create an entertaining blend of Science Fiction and Fantasy, utilizing modern technological marvels to make elements of sword and sorcery logical and realistic.  However, the setting of the story is very much a moral allegory of our own culture today.

  Virtual Wiles plays upon humanity’s obsession with entertainment.  We see it today, in a world where people live to be entertained.  They slave away at their jobs so they can get enough money to buy the latest video game system, or get that new car with all the flashy extras.  They sell out their time, and even their souls in some cases, just to get the most toys for entertainment.

  The background of Virtual Wiles isn’t much different than our world today, except it’s taken to a logical extreme.  In a future where one’s entire life can be spent on entertainment, people abandon the real world in droves for virtual reality.  Even when a lot of people get sick, have their minds damaged by the process, they still volunteer to injure themselves for the sake of entertainment.  There are a few places in the story that deal with the moral ramifications, and the government’s obligation, or lack thereof, to regulate and prevent people from harming themselves.

  I looked at today’s world, and saw how obsessed people were with their entertainment, and decided to use that as the core setting for this entertaining tale.

  Look at the way other popular technological innovations have altered the world.  Decades ago, televisions were expensive luxuries that few could afford.  As the technology grew cheaper, more people bought them, and they were used more often.  Today, almost everyone has a television, and most people watch way too much.  They are obsessed in many cases.  How would it be different, if people had the option of downloading their minds into those television programs?  How much more alluring would it be if they could escape the physical world for decades on end, and live in a fantasy world indefinitely?  I believe, if virtual reality became affordable and commonplace, it would be easy for people to become addicted to it.

  There are other morals to the story, but this was the original background with which I started when composing Virtual Wiles.