{"id":195909,"date":"2021-09-27T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=195909"},"modified":"2021-09-26T09:56:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-26T08:56:32","slug":"mark-zuckerbergs-metaverse-is-a-dystopian-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/09\/mark-zuckerbergs-metaverse-is-a-dystopian-nightmare\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s \u201cMetaverse\u201d Is a Dystopian Nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Facebook founder intends to usher in a new era of the internet where there\u2019s no distinction between the virtual and the real \u2014 and no logging off.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at a conference in 2018.
(Anthony Quintano \/ Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n

25 Sep 2021 – <\/em>While his fellow tech CEOs try to usher in<\/a> an era of mass interplanetary travel<\/a>, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is dreaming of expansion not into outer space but cyberspace. The lords of Silicon Valley are all done with earthly reality, but as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos arrange plans to physically leave, Zuckerberg wants to program a better earthly experience \u2014 one curated by Facebook.<\/p>\n

In July, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is in the process of transitioning into a \u201cMetaverse\u201d company over the next half decade. The social media giant wants to morph into an all-consuming, all-encompassing platform with relationships, work, commerce, and entertainment commingling under one big tent.If that\u2019s vague, it\u2019s because the Metaverse is an octopus with a nearly infinite number of arms and no single blueprint, which is why many are calling it the Web 3.0. It\u2019s \u201cthe successor to the mobile internet,\u201d Zuckerberg told the Verge<\/em><\/a> last month. \u201cYou can think about the Metaverse as an embodied internet, where instead of just viewing content \u2014 you are in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of his initial Metaverse media blitz, the Great Hoodied One appeared on CBS News last month to play show-and-tell with Horizon Workrooms and demonstrate what being \u201cinside the internet\u201d actually means.<\/p>\n

Workrooms, Facebook\u2019s attempt at trumping Zoom, is an immersive conference call program where coworkers don an Oculus VR helmet and share a virtual office space to, say, scribble notes on a digital whiteboard using hand gestures while their avatars mimic their own movements. The demo looks laughably underwhelming (the cartoonish avatars look like what would happen if Nintendo made an app called Wii Work), but it\u2019s easy to see why management might flock to a gentle, brightly colored panoptic workplace where it\u2019s impossible to escape the gaze of your boss, even in your own bedroom.<\/p>\n