Aria C. Zhang

WELCOME TO EARTH ONLINE Current Server: ChinaLoading... Map Size Loaded: 510,000,000 km² History Loaded: 4.6 Billion Years Players Online: 8,300,000,000Entering Game... If real life were a massive, complex, and unquittable MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), where players immerse themselves in a vast, virtual world and develop their characters through role-playing mechanics, what would it look like? How might we view the world differently?

Earlier this May, it came as a shock to Chinese soccer fans that they might not be able to watch the world’s biggest quadrennial soccer spectacle on television. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, or 世界杯 (Shìjièbēi), hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, will run from June 11 to July 19, marking the first time in history that the tournament will be jointly hosted by three countries.

As the line blurs between “colleague.skill” and “colleague.kill,” more people are coming to terms with the unsettling reality of a living, breathing coworker being reduced to a file. When experience becomes a replicable data asset, anyone can become the next to be “optimized out (优化 yōuhuà).” Legal considerations have also entered the chat.