The Chompsky Weekly #44

My job in the metaverse will be 'portmanteau regulator'. No, 'facemelter'!

Hullo.

Once again I was scrabbling for something to write about last night but kept getting distracted by my phone, and then saw ‘Meta’ trending. I like ‘meta stuff’, I thought.

Turns out it was just Zuckerberg letting us know that not only does he not give a flying fruit about children’s safety or data harvesting, but he is so against self-reflection that he’s ignoring all the bad headlines in favour of expanding his empire into an actual new type of universe.

A newniverse.

Christ.

This week’s article is about Zuck’s incoming ‘metaverse’:

“When children are suffering from increasing mental health issues, and taking their own lives after becoming addicted to, primarily, Meta’s platforms, making a big announcement that your business plan is to “build a more immersive internet” is about as tone-deaf as it’s possible to be.”

Facebook Becomes 'Meta': Banal, or Terrifying?

It’s Friday 29th October, 2021

Media News

• Facebook Inc. has rebranded as ‘Meta Platforms, Inc.’. The world’s fifth-highest-valued company seeks to lead the way to a “more immersive internet”. (BBC)

• The 1st assistant director of Rust, responsible for much of the day-to-day running of the set on which DoP Halyna Hutchins was killed, says he “didn’t check all rounds” before giving the gun to actor/producer Alec Baldwin. Live rounds are prohibited on film sets. (The Independent)