I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life

Chapter . The American Nightmare

Let’s return to Los Angeles, back where we started, looking back so we can see ahead.

In the decades after 1929, the city and the southern California region in total would become a landscape dominated by McDonald’s, Disneyland, and automobiles—a land of profitable automation, easy luxury, inexpensive fun, and independence. It started as a dream world where people could become who they wanted. The dream—more about automation than America—would gradually become a nightmare as the neighborhoods turned to slums, as clean skies turned toxic, and as groves full of oranges became highways full of cars.

Let’s consider this city of dreams, its culture and consequences.

At the center of the virtual city are Ken and Barbie, ...