In reading the Disney portions of Prisoner's Dilemma, one might think of Thomas More's Utopia (1516) or of any of a number of subsequent books that created ideal worlds remote from current realities.

Powers's novel is somewhat more anchored in reality than some of these Utopian works were.

It must be pointed out that E. L. Doctorow's World's Fair (1986; see separate entry) preceded the publication of Prisoner's Dilemma by two years. The theme of Doctorow's book is similar in some respects to some of Powers's themes in his novel, but a reading of both novels will convince one that the two books grew independently even though they focused on similar artifacts.