Dr. Vegapunk’s dreams of the future make it look like he’s planning to develop the One Piece world equivalent to the World Wide Web.
Kodoani.com – The following contains spoilers for One Piece Chapter 1067“Punk Records,”
The technological progress of the One Piece world is a strange thing. For the most part, the series seems to be set in the real world equivalent of the 17th or 18th century. In other parts, however, there’s refrigeration, cloning, and even some technologies that surpass modern science. in the real world ; The Egghead Arc took the latter point to its logical extreme. Furthermore, some forms of technology such as infrared sensing and telecommunications have been emulated through means completely unique to their world. This raises the question of how undeveloped advances will manifest.
One such advancement that seems to have been heralded is the internet. Dr. Vegapunk muses about the concept of people all over the world sharing information through a single source. The majority of modern One Piece audiences have noted that this will indeed be the birth of the internet. If that is the case, then it will have all the aspects and consequences associated with the real-world internet.
This theme comes up in Chapter 1067, “The Punk Records”, when Vegapunk is describing the eponymous part of Egghead, which houses his ever-growing brain. Currently, only he and the six Satellites can share their accumulated knowledge and experience through Punk Records. His dream is to one day connect the rest of the world with his brain and make its knowledge accessible to everyone and vice versa. Since the One Piece world didn’t even have a computer yet, Vegapunk needed to describe more of his dream for Punk Records as a giant library.
Many fans find Jimbei’s reaction to this theoretical knowledge base particularly amusing. He was quick to show how such a place of knowledge can be corrupted by conflicting ideologies. This is a real enough problem with the internet that leads to trolls, wars, baneposting and hate speech; As Fish-Man, Jimbei will be especially wary of potential consequences later. Vegapunk confirmed the Knights of the Sea’s suspicions, but he also saw it as something that could be ignored in the name of scientific progress.
Vegapunk’s concept of a shared brain can also be likened to the Brain Net proposed by theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku. He also believes in a future where memories, feelings, and emotions can be sent directly to an individual’s brain. He even believes that a person’s memories are saved in digital form after a person dies, which seems to be what Vegapunk is aiming for.
A symbiosis between machines and living tissue would be ideal in a world like One Piece. Once again, they have replaced all forms of telecommunications with Signaling Snail. To continue to advance by simulating real-world science with biomechanics and cybernetics seems only natural.
It’s hard to say whether Vegapunk’s internet dream will come true by the end of One Piece’s main story. If there’s an ending, fans can get a glimpse of what it will look like in the not-too-distant future. It can become like the real-world internet, but its unique setup can also lead to all sorts of new possibilities.