Why We Should Fear Zuck's Metaverse

Earth, we have a problem.
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Description:
What does 'meta' really mean? What can we make of Facebook's change to 'Meta'? Jean-Francois Lyotard wrote about the decline of metanarratives in 1979's 'The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge'. Can we learn anything about Zuckerberg's aspirations from this classic postmodern text?
Lyotard was prescient. He noticed in the 70s that quote ‘the miniaturization and commercialization of machines is already changing the way in which learning is acquired, classified, made available, and exploited.’ He also that ‘Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will be consumed in order to be valorized in a new production: in both cases, the goal is exchange.’
Sources:
edition.cnn.com/2021/10/25/bu...
www.vox.com/recode/22799665/f...
theconversation.com/we-know-b...
tech. connect-2021-our-...
www.washingtonpost.com/techno...
apnews.com/article/the-facebo...
edition.cnn.com/2021/10/22/bu...
Hans Bertens, The Idea of the Postmodern
Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition
Ethan Zuckerman, The Case for Digital Public Infrastructure, knightcolumbia.org/content/th...
#metaverse #zuckerberg #facebook
CREDITS
Lyotard Photo: Bracha L. Ettinger, CC BY-SA 2.5, creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

[@ThenNow]

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[@OjoRojo40]

Man you really should read some MARX. Marxist Communism IS NOT UTOPIAN (implied in the visual representation of 5:30). The metanarrative of Marxism is not the emancipation of the working class but its abolition! Like Lenin said, if you want the working class to reign forever, we will never achieve communism. That's why we need to put an end to Facebook, to democratize the means of production. The answer is more communism, not less. Thanks for the video.

[@deathbird909]

21:43 Hope to see you cross-posting on LBRY, Mastodon, and Pixelfed soon?

[@NoContextRDH]

There comes a point where you have to sit down and think, is this really the way we want our world to go?

[@pendejo6466]

So don't participate. There will be enough people opting for the conventional life, while others do their own thing.

[@ozzymandias8265]

Most discussions of data and technology these days reminds me of Deleuze's "Postscript on the Societies of Control." The ways in which data is used to make our lives seemingly easier (communicating via social media, for example) usually end up obscuring the ways in which our lives are more and more outside of our control (people being led down political pipelines by the videos in their recommendations).

[@nightoftheworld]

But we are simultaneously becoming more aware of these manipulations and our role in training our algorithm/being thoughtful of our data footprints, so perhaps there is hope yet.

[@SlyJustChilling]

if a metaverse is to replace the internet it must not be owned by someone

[@Rexcarsalot]

It still rubs me the wrong way that Mark Zuckerberg shamelessly took the both the name and the concept of the Metaverse from Snow Crash. It's like an oligarch tech billionaire openly embracing his role as a cyberpunk villian.

[@StudentOfEleos]

Gnomon by Nick Harkaway is a really interesting (and disturbing) novel set in a metaverse like society, but more than that individuals within it have shared responsibility for decisions within the system. Well worth a read even though it's a long read

[@dialaskisel5929]

Another side of the conversation I would like to see more of is education in schools that is designed to raise awareness of the psychological tricks and strategies that corporations and political parties use to manipulate their consumers/constituents. After all, informed consumers can use their wallets to fight back against bad practices in a capitalist society, and a democracy where the voters are easily controlled by aggressive emotionally driven messaging is really no democracy at all.

[@TheMcpeMick]

However, settings aside that "voting with wallet" often don't results in much actual damage as seen by countless failed boycotting campaign, it would be very difficult to boycott Facebook's metaverse if it holds a monopoly in the market

[@briannawaldorf8485]

Voting by wallet is an ineffective way of voting when people with more dollars have more votes.

[@millennialodyssey5956]

Speaking of education. The U.S is not a democracy.

[@millennialodyssey5956]

​@@TheMcpeMick not true as we are seeing the downfall of many companies because of boycotting right now. Too big to fall is false

[@rhythmandblues_alibi]

Media literacy should absolutely be taught in high school, if not later primary school. However that assumes the premise that our dear leaders *want* an intelligent society of voters. People who vote blindly are much easier to manipulate and control.

[@invictus327]

[Then and Now] - your work is brilliant. Thank you and please keep generating such astute, eloquent, reflective and insightful media artefacts.

[@Noms_Chompsky]

And here i thought the Zuckbot was just trying to re-invent Second life

[@barbarne]

WOW, this video is so incredibly relevant! I think a lot of us have had these thoughts and worries brewing in our minds during the last few years - but you managed to put words to them so elegantly through the lens of Lyotard. Thank you so much for your work, this might be my favourite of yours yet!

[@fowchiiiliedpuppiesdied]

Is this, um, marketing “delusion”? I think what Mark needs, is to be sent to his room, and grounded. He has been a very bad little boy.

[@littleredruri]

"Do zuckerburgs dream of electric algorithms" good reference

[@ges2211]

Your videos are great, and I think this is the best one you've made thus far.

[@weltenrandwanderer2626]

Thanks for these great videos! Please keep on making them.

[@giniwelle]

Thank you so much for the analysis. These are so valuable for students all over the world.... Sending gratitude from Sri Lanka.

[@geekmeee]

Metaverse is another step closer to science fiction, where you can pretend to be something you are not.

[@chuyramirez3731]

A Matrix within a Matrix. A box 📦 within a box 📦.

[@basthoune3104]

Really clean editing

[@robsands6656]

I say let them have the metaverse. I don't know about everybody else but I thought the matrix was like... bad?

[@caffeinator1849]

Brilliant video as always

[@richardhines8622]

Limbic System vs the prefrontal cortex. There, fixed it for ya.

[@Theoboris_Mosby]

Great video man!

[@garyskyner5855]

Facebook, et al are like smoking - no one can claim ignorance as to there dangers. If you want to partake then you have to accept the consequences.

[@mikealexander1935]

I like these ideas at the end.

[@georgiofekete812]

One of your best videos.

[@leealexander3507]

I like playing VR games once in awhile. There was one on Oculus Prime that had me shaking and sweating landing a WW2 plane in a field and I enjoyed the memories invoked reliving the moon landing with the added feature of going along for the trip. Some of the graphics weren't so good while other parts were actual footage from the event including President Kennedy announcing that we were going to land men on the moon. Still, I very much prefer the Vive system although it takes some room to play properly. I don't really care for playing with others because I can no longer speak but some individual games are great. I think I'd rather avoid anything run by Facebook after my experience with the Facebook platform itself.

[@hinduismwithpremananddasbhagat]

I'm a hermit. I like to sit in my apartment and write. How is a metaverse going to improve this? Actually, it feels like a distraction from doing what I enjoy, doing what I like, doing what makes me feel good. If I wanted to socialize with folks I would. I don't have enough time to write, as it is, so how is spending time going into a fake universe going to give me more time to write? And, will it be fine if I create a locked room in this alt universe to write? I doubt it.

[@KhashayarRahmani]

brilliant job

[@thesimplicitylifestyle]

We decide how to use the tools we create.

[@giggiddy]

His name should be enough to make you suspicious of everything he does.

[@kazz970]

This was brilliant.

[@hydrostatic3000]

Good video but I do have a question. Having not heard of Lyotard before, I looked up the quote you referenced at around 19:00. You begin the quote with "Capital is the degree zero..." but multiple online sources cite it as actually being "Eclecticism is the degree zero..." Was this a slip up? Or are you drawing a connection between what Lyotard meant by "eclecticism" in that context with the role capital plays in our lives today? Just curious, cheers!

[@neilhenderson5581]

It's a slight misquote but the general idea is solid. I'll add a little more context that comes after what was quoted directly: "But this realism of the 'anything goes' is in fact that of money; in the absence of aesthetic criteria, it remains possible and useful to assess the value of works of art according to the profits that they yield. Such realism accommodates all tendencies, just as capital accommodates all 'needs', providing that the tendencies and needs have purchasing power" (Lyotard 1979/1984, p. 76)

[@poeticjustice1611]

Thank you. Thanking you is all I can say for now. Just thank you. You’ve helped me feel like I’m not insane seeing the way this world is going. Your a breath of beautiful fresh air.

[@richardouvrier3078]

Chaos and quantum theories have undecidabilities.

[@loumoon7660]

Having control is one of the oldest meta narratives humans tell themselves

[@bepisthescienceman4202]

When guiding the hand of the market If it's holding a cheque or a gun The fingers go deep in your pockets And you can live under the thumb

[@Light-at-Dawn]

Well, that didn't go very well for Marc, Did it?

[@HarperSkylark]

this is interesting. I recommend pairing the content of this video along with truthstream media's unique interpretation so you can get even more freaked out about it.

[@christopherellis2663]

Leotard, Guillotine, Mongolfier, and Margarine

[@pt9973]

Thank you for this excellent take /w Lyotard and the post-modern to Meta. But should we take into consideration history and the post-marxist/ new left situation Lyotard wrote from and in the end his, as Zizek would put it, not shallow enough concept of ideology (e.g. distancing from Marx and Lacan) and taking capitalism not as a grand narrative/ ideology. Hence this forgots that the Metaverse or post-modernism is already buit in a capitaist system, and hence already our lives and the reality is driven through, in and out of this logic. And by the same argument let’s face it the non post-modern wasn’t a serene time, and ”public” broadcasting was not a innocent medium of democracy, deliberation and wonders. As V. I. Uliánov wrote famously (and tried it with horrid consequences in practice) the only state that we need is the one that eliminates it self.

[@EMilWentzelA]

Very good analysis. Warnings from the past keep becoming reality. This subject needs more expansion... there's something underneath and though I'm not sure how to describe it... you've touched on it in this video. Yes... democratize and open source... but Leotard may have also hinted at a deeper underlying issue... science has become "distant" almost an enigma even as we use it to make wonders. What is the "meta narrative" when layman cant grasp the explanation of reality... and the experts are so specialized that they refer to other specialists on a question of importance to their work.

[@justinbozeman9279]

I dont want to live in that fcking place! Even less people will care when we smell smoke and our infrastructure fails and we don't know cuz we playing cards with grandma and grandpa who are both recently deceased and somehow before me in the virtual form.

[@js4_y567]

smoke always disappears though

[@aaron2709]

Ironically, it helps Zuckerberg if his doings are seen as a 'problem.' This gives him gravity, importance. The simple fix is to not use Facebook. If his image-capture video game takes off, don't use that either. If your boss forces you to attend a video-capture 'meeting,' put tape over your camera lens. I think his products are boring. Apparently I'm immune to their overwhelming addictive power.

[@pendejo6466]

"The simple fix is to not use Facebook." But people rather complain about the behavior of others without having to change their own.

[@shhrey3128]

One point of it as I see is when people are enrolled in virtual world in day to day lifes , they would really not damage the real world as they did earlier (pollution/road accidents/deforestation..etc. not an expert ;)

[@aturchomicz821]

hmmm

[@hasturiath]

We are dreamers and idealists. There will always be someone who will try to materialize the things we've dream

[@msmelanie.]

Scary isn’t it 😬

[@marcussassan]

thianks for this

[@christopherellis2663]

Suckabuck and Company need a good Reality Check.

[@tim290280]

Loving the snark in this one.

[@AndreiDanMusetescuZ]

Love it!

[@nightoftheworld]

20:04 *who can guarantee the right decisions are made?* “We should as Lyotard writes, favor _a multiplicity of finite meta-arguments._ As he presciently wrote: _Increasingly, the central question is becoming who will have access to the information these machines must have in storage to guarantee that the right decisions are made.”_ And aren’t the meta problems here that no One can certify the _rightness_ of decisions absolutely/omnisciently-and that data is polysemous/interpretations differ. Like Lacan said, _there is no big Other._ Every group/party/One is split internally, we rely on others to see more stereoscopically in truth. In what ways ought we be guiding the invisible hand? Isn’t my desire also the desire of the other?

[@mathisblair2798]

Not afraid of something that only a nichw handful of people will get sucjered into. Facebook left such a nasty impression and taste in the majority's psyche.

[@TheJayman213]

Linking quantum mechanics to post-modernism seems like a stretch. It started so early in the century and since it retains cause and effect it doesn't do that much to discourage meta-narratives. Contemporary Marxists should hold an Aleatory Materialist worldview in line with the findings of quantum mechanics imo.

[@aalex100]

This is the common problem with philosophers since 1970s, they try so hard to dive into all kinds of new inventions but more often than not it feels overstretched, like they only exploit these themes to fuel their speculation without fully understanding their own 'argument'. I'm not entirely on Sokal side here but I feel that there has long been a big divide between philosophy and technical/scientific expertise.

[@IIBizzy]

@@aalex100 Completely agree when you read a lot of their arguments basend on some scientific ttheory or technical invention it immediate becomes apperant that they don't really understand in on a level that would be required to give their argumentation any kind of legitamacy. You don't even need to be any kind of natural scientist or ingenieur to recognice when they start doing, it's pretty clear that they often have no real solid basis in it.

[@orbyorby1931]

Fantastic video! Have an algorithmically beneficial engagement as a payment

[@nightoftheworld]

This sounds like Mέta (Yanis Varoufakis’ greek group of the same name) critique of the horror of such unaccountable private control of our commons

[@proletaariat]

Lol, the robot man!

[@googleguy-ft8xh]

Excellent video!

[@souhailtag4588]

This is why web 3.0 and decentralization will help us

[@24tommyst]

Unlike the matrix, nobody will be forced into this, so just enjoy the VR games and move on.

[@manwhoismissingtwotoenails4811]

I'd pay Zuckerberg so much to yell "I AM A SURGEON!!1!"

[@TheEublepharis1]

No Metaverse, No problem

[@philharland7763]

Lyotard... truly a modern Prophet.

[@user-rw7mf4oo1h]

We should fear internet. We are living inside of this world and we are out of our real world

[@VorosMedve]

Web 3.0 - distributed, user-owned - offers a different model. Solomon is coming!

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

Based on how its going, I doubt we should be scared

[@4n0nym0u5]

Well, it takes one killer app to change opinion of the youth, who are easy to influence.. this is how almost all of the technology we use have been adopted. I think this will also be the excuse of Mark. "I only created it, people are using it".

[@richardouvrier3078]

Addictive, devisive, subversive.

[@725ken]

I'm probably just really dumb but I didn't understand anything this dude was talking about after the 3 minute mark I'm probably ripe for the picking for Zuck lol

[@NEMO-NEMO]

would the world be a better place without FACEBOOK?

[@jeffharris8166]

It is.

[@BeautifulEarthJa]

I can't tell when Zuck is meta'd

[@abadidea9325]

Mark Zuckerberg eyes remind me of that scene in jaws where the eyes of sharks were described.

[@nightoftheworld]

“Y’know, the thing about a shark, he’s got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eyes. When he comes after ya, he doesn’t seem to be livin’ until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white..”

[@ivan55599]

Meta (tm) is the new meta.

[@general-von-jerry2226]

Its just a game

[@alexandrlazarev9989]

Judas, damn you!

[@susanwilliams4953]

Mark Zuckerberg eyes look dark, intelligent and angry?

[@johnphillips5993]

Socialize social media

[@joshuahebert7972]

I've been involved in Second Life for a little over 16 years. I can firmly say that while I've learned a lot about myself while using it. But I think you get out of it, what you put into it. It in of itself is an empty experience. Metaverse will very likely be the same. With -a lot- more bullshittery.

[@Spark_Iskra_z_Polski]

Reminds me of Second life. Nothing new. Meta can also mean death ;)

[@Turdfergusen382]

I think the transition clicks are distracting

[@yqafree]

Hmm.. There are many abuses.. It's difficult for me to standby your general advice here. Okay.. So indeed Zuckerberg and his constituencies could exploit people, but every lobby and group with an ideology have such agendas. But I'd like for anyone to consider what our French philosopher was meaning by the fact that there are so many highly nuanced dialectics. This has always been the case. People will and should disagree. Separation is the solution, alchemical term staying true to a divine poetry perhaps. Indeed I think we ought to find those of a similar mind about what nuances appeal to us. As those came together not in all places but a smaller area to conserve the value system to keep checks and balances on the crony capitalism of mid-historical USA. Other areas have tried other means to varying aspects of success, and on its other hand exploits.. So really it's not universally applied policies and strict regulations that are made on the global scale that really resolve the problems. No, but rather individuals willingly dissenting and disengaging from platforms and locations that cause exploits onto them. And so if the scale and scope of those who cause exploits are too far reaching, as in the case of how the infrastructure and politics is too homogenized then such minorities (democracies in themselves) have the rightful duty to secede as patriots from that power structure, hopefully by peaceful mutiny-such as having terms be served and boundaries respected. If there are any number of things I've learned in all discourses from all people from varying walks of life, they are : 1. That what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another 2. That every idea offered has both redeeming values and works up to a point but there are always valid criticisms against it, and someone is always drawing one or another lot by whichever design is applied 3. Also that no matter how much one really believes in their plan, still in every offered idea, somewhere down the plumb line is erroneous and flawed concepts that get built into the gestalt of their design(s), meaning that remediation of issues in one area will cause another unforseen issues somewhere else whether it's about the internal or external infrastructures 4. That most ideas that are somewhat wrong sound better indeed, and that is why they get tried, whilst barely ever do obviously terrible ideas get tried. Maybe that will open one to understanding why even when oneself and those one agrees with, no matter how emotionally charged our constituency is against another's set of ideas, perhaps there's enough room for us to try our own experiments and that discussions will need to be maintained so that boundaries are not overstepped and likewise not pushed to a bigger range than agreed about. All these require one central principle that I think all morality is built on, that what one is responsible for is what they voluntarily sign up for. And the application of this ethic is to decentralize to a moderate degree, and to expect that there will be disagreement. With that said I think what concerns me most with Meta and similar technological advances are how they are going to quickly alter our infrastructure way too massively. Indeed greedy individuals and groups are going to exploit our mineral wealth, energy wealth and political wealth. Our outcomes no matter how they measure up shouldn't be secretly tapped from nor obviously sapped to people that control markets whether "free" or "open" or otherwise. But they will try it no matter. So my advice is to be mindful, don't think a considerably free service is actually free ever, consider mankind's nature flawed and remember that most others have only their interests in mind. With that might you gain a respect that is very generally shared with a subset of humanity about what ought to be public and what ought to be private and that when some of our children resist the infrastructure that was curated to such working models that instead of having them simply undo what we've accomplished instead we help them describe what they'd like instead of it and find them a few locations that they could try to liv in or give them a map to sojourn on to find it themselves. - Your Quality Anarchist

[@yqafree]

But to be clear your video is very thought provoking and well made, I am just offering my own philosophy, experience and constructive feedback. Cheers! 😁

[@sinOsiris]

participation bureaucracy trustworthiness reliability consistency short mid long term aspect privacy nomenclature intellectual property aspect intrusion shall i continue? the list goes on and on....

[@sinOsiris]

infrastructure security energy blockchain the parameter in/ out -- transitions AI recognized/ rogue possible impromptus quantifiable etc

[@sinOsiris]

software distribution hardware make up throttling ....

[@sinOsiris]

supporting app OS multi platform clearing house exchange center inflation ....

[@sinOsiris]

many more

[@SuperSanic..]

at first we need to decide whether we need democracy or capitalism

[@Kuwazi_]

0:16 Mark Zuckerberg not human lol

[@EranHertz]

Facebook sounds less than a platform and more of a man-in-the-middle trojan horse.

[@TheLeosepulveda1]

Most important statements about the consequences of Metaverse are not based on evidence. Facts are combined with assumptions. I do not like

[@vicepresident7365]

ha ha i am not hot on these #MetaFreedom's lol

[@Janiix89]

Metaverse- web3 - world is changing- 🤙 - I’m excited for these things- just hopefully not the the Marc zuckerburg version

[@marlonseiring-andersen1680]

man this video really made me mad. like actually fuming mad, angry and pissed off. so pissed of in fact, that i will spend one additional hour on youtube, just because im that mad. i even disliked the video because im so angry! i think that will fool the sentiment analysis that the algorithm performs, thus recomending the video to more people

[@mcgoombs]

We need to end capitalism before it ends us yall

[@00oo00XDD]

I think the metaverse will mostly become decentralized through blockchain technology (i.e. sandbox, decentraland, etc). The Facebook metaverse will just become "Zuckland", which you can visit, but is not the only one to visit. There will also be new forms of protocols for the metaverse (like https for hypertext internet etc.).

[@rhetoric5173]

it's just another bubble

[@rhetoric5173]

it's just another bubble

[@Darca1n]

I doubt blockchain in its current form, IE cryptocurrencies and such, will have any widespread relevance properly to any sort of metaverse, especially after having so thoroughly absolutely destroyed its own reputation with all the garbage, and especially turning almost everyone of a creative mind against it with the widespread theft and exploitation in NFT crap.

[@00oo00XDD]

@@Darca1n I strongly disagree with your take, because the Metaverse without Blockchain-Technology is not a metaverse. Blockchain/Cryptocurrency is as relevant as Social Networks and VR/AR-Technology to the metaverse (the three pillars if you will). In regards to your comment about the current state anything related to crypto is indeed a lot of garbage. However, you have to understand that this thing is new and the market has to mature and it will.

[@Darca1n]

@@00oo00XDD What does blockchain contribute that can't be done by other, vastly more efficient means though? Uniquely identified items? TF2's been doing that for well over a decade, iirc.

[@renatanovato9460]

Engagjng

[@phaIIicaIIyimpaired]

When you are pissed that people are having fun in vr, when they could spend that time being your wage slaves. In vr. When I first saw that supermarket simulation, I thought it was a parody. Only super rich antisocial tech bros could come up with a virtual simulation of reality, with many of the same limits artificially imposed on a technically limitless space. Worst example being the selling of virtual property and imposing real life zoning laws and problems and artificial scarcity. Yaaay capitalism!

[@grischa762]

"in a democracy we all have our mini naratives" true, but if you are not rich enough your narative does not mean jack shit, when it comes to political decisions. Most prevelantly in the US. There is litterally no correlation between the wants and needs of the "poor 90%" and political decisions. There is however high correlation between the interest of the "wealthy 10%" and political decisions. This is something that needs to be adressed. Otherwise what was proposed in the end of the video will never happen. Guess why.

[@LogicGated]

Zuck is already aiming for monopolisation, but hey capitalism is supposed to promote competition and not lead to the formation of monopolies right?

[@8Robba]

#BreakupMeta

[@elainevuong5259]

This video paints a pessimistic view of the Metaverse - but it doesn't have to be that way. Enter Web 3.0. Would love to see a follow up video covering that space.

[@MooChumez]

I feel very lucky that I live within nature, on my own property, next to a nature reserve that will always be there. I have all the tools and land at my desposal to live completely self sustainably. Bare feet walking on long green grass and beautiful dirt 🥰 In saying this, I am excited for a VR/AR metaverse (no not Meta's verse) as I still have the real world to go back to once I'm done, within nature. If that wasn't the case for me personally, say if I lived in an apartment block or in the concrete jungle, I would be terrified of any Metaverse of the VR variaty. I can see HUGE Ready Player One and Wall-E vibes for the people with no grounding to the real world. That real world being NATURE

[@Retired_channel]

Metaverse is bad. Right of the bat.

[@loumoon7660]

Do people actually use this haha

[@IIBizzy]

I love posing all these postmodernist questions/narratives including wanting to see marxism as just another "grand narrative", but then you end up supporting good old socdem shit, just support PBS, lol.

[@wp6007]

Oh you changed your show a whole lot