Big Tech is unsustainable by nature, and if you think it cant get worse you might get surprised.
Facebook 1.0
Recalling the negative effects of Facebook Inc before being renamed to “Meta” last October 28th, 2021:
Facebook is an agent of government propaganda, targeted harassment, terrorist recruitment, emotional manipulation, and genocide—a world-historic weapon that lives not underground, but in a Disneyland-inspired campus in Menlo Park, California, Adrienne LaFrance
Facebook users are the group with the most power to demand change. Facebook would be nothing without their attention. Citizens of the World might shun Facebook’s products as a matter of civic duty, Adrienne LaFrance
Facebook is destroying how society works,
said the 2007-2011 Facebook’s vice-president of user growth Chamath Palihapitiya. He also said to feel “tremendous guilt” about Facebook, and has banned his children from using it. The comments were made shortly after Facebook’s first president Sean Parker described how facebook might be changing the way people’s minds work.
God only knows what Facebook is doing to our children's brains,
said Sean Parker (Facebook’s first president).
Facebook and smartphones are an ‘existential threat’ to Humanity
, Tristan Harris (ex-Google designer, featured in The Social Dilemma documentary).
Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who had joined the company to help combat misinformation, recently testified in front of the United States Congress and blew the whistle, saying Facebook prioritised profit over safety and was tearing our societies apart.
The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimise for its own interests, like making more money
The most damaging document leak showed Facebook was aware of the damage its Instagram app was causing to teen mental health and wellbeing.
As long as Facebook is operating in the dark, it is accountable to no one. And it will continue to make choices that go against the common good
, Frances Haugen
What does “Metaverse” mean?
The Metaverse started as a science fiction thing. Neal Stephenson famously coined the term in his 1992 book *Snow Crash, *describing it as a 3D virtual world inhabited by avatars of real people. Lots of other science fiction media includes metaverse-like systems. In most current discourse, “the metaverse” is just a sexy, aspirational name for some kind of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) play which brings a sense of “presence”, i.e. being physically engaging with places and people (instead of watching them in 2D).
Will your friends invite you to cyber-brunch instead of normal brunch ?
Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the principal research scientist at MIT's Media Lab, actually built a 1994 version of a Metaverse with his friend Daniel Beck. Zuzkerman recently said:
The Metaverse was terrible then, and it’s terrible now
Facebook’s promised metaverse is about distracting us from the world it’s helped break
Jaron Lanier, computer scientist and the “founding father” of VR, wrote in his book Dawn of the New Everything (2017)
VR will test us. It could turn out to be the evilest invention of all time
Facebook 2.0 (Meta)
Facebook Inc was recently renamed to Meta. Some call this rebranding a way to wipe out all the dirt that has been ruining the reputation of the firm, while the latter calls it a way to reflect their commitment to a future where the Metaverse will be brought to life:
A set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you
Facebook, arguably the tech company with the biggest stake in the Metaverse, owns Oculus — a company that manufactures and sells VR/AR tools and is developing a 3D virtual platform called Horizon. Zuckerberg claimes that after the completion of the project (next 10-15 years) VR/AR hardware will be as normalized as today’s use of smartphones.
3D spaces in the Metaverse will allow you to “hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create, and more”.
Final Remarks
Given that people don't like wearing face masks at the office or pretty much anywhere, even though masks can save their lives, why would anyone want to wear a VR headset all day? (ref)
Mark Zuckerberg’s goals for his company are another proof that he only cares about himself. Sometimes he resembles an Alien, without any clue of what is like to be humane. But he is definitely not alone. Other billionaires like Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Richard Branson (Virgin) are also more keen to 💲 than making life on Earth better for all, judging by the recent news about their scramble for space travel supremacy (ref). As far as their greediness is concerned, the sky is the limit.
Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Extended Reality Safety Initiative, a nonprofit developing standards and advising lawmakers on safety in VR, have raised the alarm on the privacy threats Big Tech is posing with its vision for a metaverse (ref)
I’ll definitely NOT embrace any Metaverse. Big Tech’s web 2.0 was already proven to be harmful for the general public (children included). The effects of a Metaverse on our health will be worse IMO (e.g., cybersickness – see full-text below). Don´t let profit destroy us as humans 💙🍀.
full-text PDF on ChainSafe.