In the book Wade Watts powers his Oasis console and a small heater using a battery that he recharges in a van by pedaling a stationary bike. This seems quite far fetched. The console itself appears to be a thin client with only enough CPU Aand GPU power to render the Oasis and a little extra to contribute to the server for distributed computing if needed. The power needs of such a device are likely to be quite low so i figure a regular smartphone size battery (20 to 25 watts) would be fine. However, the heater is the problem. The smallest electric heater i have ever seen is still 200 watts. A normal human can produce ~100 watts of power per hour according to this site. If the Oasis console uses ~5 watts per hour this would leave him with 95 watts with which to run his heater. That would allow him to run his heater for ~28 minutes per hour and only if he spent the entire previous hour pedaling to recharge the battery.

  • Veraticus@lib.lgbt
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    1 year ago

    This is a valid complaint.

    I do think it’s funny that the apparent impossibility of the rest of the tech is okay to you (a complete sensory-replacement virtual reality hosting the most complicated game ever created with something close to true AI)… but the heater is just too much to swallow.

    • shortwavesurfer@monero.townOP
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      1 year ago

      I think full sensory VR will eventually exist. However in the beginning of the book all he had was the console which draws the Oasis onto the eye with low power lasers and earbuds for sound.