ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 opens by considering Vincent Mosco’s term ‘digital sublime.’ It explores the links among digital media, interconnectivity, and sublimity versus the powerful dystopian discourses that circulate in relation to the fear that such technology will be used by forces of terror. It critiques the ideas of cyber utopianists before unpacking arguments by those who have seen digital technology as dystopian. Mr. Robot provides an early example in this chapter of the way in which digital interconnectivity has undermined ‘reality,’ exploring this through Baudrillard’s ideas in “Simulacra and Simulations,” breeding a nostalgia for a time in which technology appeared harmless. The chapter draws this together by considering the increasing popularity of retro video gaming as evidence that the digital sublime has provoked a nostalgia for older forms of gaming, image, and production techniques that challenge ideas around digital convergence. The chapter discusses Ernst Cline’s novel Ready Player One at some length but also explores video game franchises such as Bioshock, Fallout, and Assassin’s Creed.
