On Fri, Oct 29, 2021 at 6:44 AM Felix Stalder <fe...@openflows.com> wrote:

> There is nothing in there that you couldn't do in Second Life and it
> even looks pretty much the same.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gElfIo6uw4g
>

Indeed, we're stuck at the Star Trek bar and the kids are bored. The
thrills of the 70s have gone stale. The simulacrum of a redwood-draped
hillside is a lot less inviting when you know the real thing burnt to a
crisp last summer.

The giveaway comes near the end of the video. What Zuck is planning to sell
here are not the thrills. Instead it's glorified virtual office space for
corporate managers. The point is to have *them* force everyone inside his
program (presumably the contracts are already signed). Corporate people are
high-value and they'll want to be with each other, especially the aspiring
ones. If they're afraid to go out of their compound in whatever declining
city where they live, then they'll go to the virtual bars and beaches in
hopes of finding a corporate soulmate to climb the ladder with.

Only the stench of fear could force people into an eternal (and odorless)
Menlo Park seen through goggles. Covid has been a godsend for Silicon
Valley. Fear management is the emergent paradigm of social control. Be
afraid. Put on the goggles. Clock in.

no thanks, Brian
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