Thank you for this thoroughly justified rant. I blame Facebook for the end of what used to be my marriage. It’s a drug. A toxic substance. I loathe Mark Zuckerberg and all he has spawned.
Instead of test-tube babies this sounds like beaker adults. Just float your brain into that vault over there and plug into FB forever! Thanks Mark and Elon!
Perhaps Bill and other Substack authors can take the action of asking the CEO of Substack, Chris Best, to remove the Facebook option from the Substack 'Share this Post' feature.
Down the road, consider a Third Act action campaign to garner divestment of organizations which hold Facebook investments. Plus, push our Washington DC representatives for action to bring about real change.
Companies such as Facebook and Fossil Fuel companies which prioritize profit over the public interest are morally bankrupt and we can advocate for justice.
Thank you for this striking comparison to the climate crisis.
I've been doing a lot of gardening lately, and learning about native versus "invasive" species. It occurs to me that there is nothing particularly new or "evil" or "invasive" about what happens on Facebook. What's new is that this activity is unopposed.
Previously, human nature, as it were, culminated in Adam Smith's "invisible hand". Human desire, drive, some version of a quest for survival, drove economies, spawned production, encouraged innovation. There were plenty of perversions and abuses...colonialism, extraction of resources from "undeveloped nations", etc. But ultimately, the activity was recognizably human because finally limited.
Likewise, the "native" plant lives with competition, has to find a way to fit in. With Facebook and the other "social media", and especially with this "metaverse", there's no one to push back, there are no limits. There's no expectation or demand that the activity on Facebook be structured or compromising or collaborative or otherwise limited.
And so this "English ivy" can go anywhere and everywhere, working its way into the garage of our minds, up under the gutters, deep into the brick.
I remember reading Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth in high school decades ago in which the main character, Wang Lung, introduces problematic family members to opium. These family members readily succumbed to the haze of opium addiction and brought Wang Lung his sought after "peace." With the East India Company flooding China with profitable opium, millions of Chinese became opium addicts. This book was my first exposure to the concept of mind control. Surely, human minds were controlled by chemicals before the Opium Wars and addiction is of course a scourge worldwide. Technology is mankind's latest wrinkle in mind control. Anyone who has a child 20 years or younger--generation Z which was born around year Zero (and also called generation Zombie) and grew up and is growing up alongside and within our now totally immersed digital world--sees how it is virtually impossible to control or know what our children are accessing or how their thoughts are influenced/manipulated by Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok, et al. Seems like the modern version of an opium haze.
I don't see anything wrong/bad about the metaverse just as I don't see anything wrong with the Internet and social media, in the general sense. There are/will be bad examples of all these, just like any technology. So, yes, fix the bad examples but I think it is mistake to assume/say that the metaverse itself is a bad thing. I also don't think breaking up FB makes much sense. It simply needs to be regulated, just like the oil companies... So, I get what you are saying, but I think you're conflating several things when they really need to be broken out and dealt with specifically, not generally.
I agree with every word you wrote, and yet I can easily envision a world where a large majority of the world exists in a metaverse. .living in virtual mansions, taking virtual vacations, changing their appearance at will. As with most mind-altering drugs, such people will not only withdraw from family and friends, but schools, careers, jobs, even eating. As reality grows more dire, the need for escapism will grow more acute. The easy lure of fantasy vs the challenging work to change individual and collective reality...it's difficult to envision the vast majority choosing the latter path. I have to wonder, though, how will companies (already facing a labor shortage) survive in a future where people prefer to exist in fantasy vs work in reality? For their own self-interest, corporations should be alarmed. Of course, they should be alarmed by the erosion of democracy, and yet they are not.
Thank you for this thoroughly justified rant. I blame Facebook for the end of what used to be my marriage. It’s a drug. A toxic substance. I loathe Mark Zuckerberg and all he has spawned.
Instead of test-tube babies this sounds like beaker adults. Just float your brain into that vault over there and plug into FB forever! Thanks Mark and Elon!
Inspiring and well said my friend. May I be unpolluted in mind and body.
I believe that actions speak louder than words.
Perhaps Bill and other Substack authors can take the action of asking the CEO of Substack, Chris Best, to remove the Facebook option from the Substack 'Share this Post' feature.
The 'Share this Post' feature is the right arrow symbol. https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/facebook-is-to-our-minds-as-exxon.
Down the road, consider a Third Act action campaign to garner divestment of organizations which hold Facebook investments. Plus, push our Washington DC representatives for action to bring about real change.
Companies such as Facebook and Fossil Fuel companies which prioritize profit over the public interest are morally bankrupt and we can advocate for justice.
Thank you for this striking comparison to the climate crisis.
I've been doing a lot of gardening lately, and learning about native versus "invasive" species. It occurs to me that there is nothing particularly new or "evil" or "invasive" about what happens on Facebook. What's new is that this activity is unopposed.
Previously, human nature, as it were, culminated in Adam Smith's "invisible hand". Human desire, drive, some version of a quest for survival, drove economies, spawned production, encouraged innovation. There were plenty of perversions and abuses...colonialism, extraction of resources from "undeveloped nations", etc. But ultimately, the activity was recognizably human because finally limited.
Likewise, the "native" plant lives with competition, has to find a way to fit in. With Facebook and the other "social media", and especially with this "metaverse", there's no one to push back, there are no limits. There's no expectation or demand that the activity on Facebook be structured or compromising or collaborative or otherwise limited.
And so this "English ivy" can go anywhere and everywhere, working its way into the garage of our minds, up under the gutters, deep into the brick.
I remember reading Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth in high school decades ago in which the main character, Wang Lung, introduces problematic family members to opium. These family members readily succumbed to the haze of opium addiction and brought Wang Lung his sought after "peace." With the East India Company flooding China with profitable opium, millions of Chinese became opium addicts. This book was my first exposure to the concept of mind control. Surely, human minds were controlled by chemicals before the Opium Wars and addiction is of course a scourge worldwide. Technology is mankind's latest wrinkle in mind control. Anyone who has a child 20 years or younger--generation Z which was born around year Zero (and also called generation Zombie) and grew up and is growing up alongside and within our now totally immersed digital world--sees how it is virtually impossible to control or know what our children are accessing or how their thoughts are influenced/manipulated by Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok, et al. Seems like the modern version of an opium haze.
I don't see anything wrong/bad about the metaverse just as I don't see anything wrong with the Internet and social media, in the general sense. There are/will be bad examples of all these, just like any technology. So, yes, fix the bad examples but I think it is mistake to assume/say that the metaverse itself is a bad thing. I also don't think breaking up FB makes much sense. It simply needs to be regulated, just like the oil companies... So, I get what you are saying, but I think you're conflating several things when they really need to be broken out and dealt with specifically, not generally.
You are very likely right, but I like to remind myself the species survived Gutenberg. I think.
I agree with every word you wrote, and yet I can easily envision a world where a large majority of the world exists in a metaverse. .living in virtual mansions, taking virtual vacations, changing their appearance at will. As with most mind-altering drugs, such people will not only withdraw from family and friends, but schools, careers, jobs, even eating. As reality grows more dire, the need for escapism will grow more acute. The easy lure of fantasy vs the challenging work to change individual and collective reality...it's difficult to envision the vast majority choosing the latter path. I have to wonder, though, how will companies (already facing a labor shortage) survive in a future where people prefer to exist in fantasy vs work in reality? For their own self-interest, corporations should be alarmed. Of course, they should be alarmed by the erosion of democracy, and yet they are not.