What does one has to do to understand all of this? Check out Marshall McLuhan’s concepts that explain media—especially Tetrads.
I’ve been following and reading McLuhan’s work since the mid-1970’s and have yet to find a single idea of his that has been disproven.
Cell phones, the internet, AI and other new media entities have already reversed. Cell phones have isolated us, not brought us together—the other media are destined for reversal as well.
McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage should be listed right along with Animal Farm and 1984 as required reading for the current generation.
To your point, the Metaverse runs into the uncanny valley and will be very bad until it works.
As for generative AI and Big Tech's data harvesting, that is the future we are actively trying to avoid. While generative AI can be a useful tool, it shouldn't be a replacement for real human connection. This is why we are building an information-sharing platform focused on collaboration where the users own their data, the community governs the protocol, there are no advertisers, everyone is paid for their contributions, and all content is verifiably human-generated.
Hoping that gives some faith, but it will be an uphill battle.
I assume you've read 'Techno Feudalism' by Yanis Varoufakis, if not, please do. It signposts an even greater catastrophe...
What does one has to do to understand all of this? Check out Marshall McLuhan’s concepts that explain media—especially Tetrads.
I’ve been following and reading McLuhan’s work since the mid-1970’s and have yet to find a single idea of his that has been disproven.
Cell phones, the internet, AI and other new media entities have already reversed. Cell phones have isolated us, not brought us together—the other media are destined for reversal as well.
McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage should be listed right along with Animal Farm and 1984 as required reading for the current generation.
We can’t say we weren’t warned.
Aidan’s latest is a fitting bookend to your post today:
https://open.substack.com/pub/howtodothingswithmemes/p/slop-capitalism?
The level of this ‘person’s’ ’out of touchness’ shifts into the realm of horror when you realize the degree of power and money ‘he’s’ amassed.
Mental illness: “Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate dream of social technology. That is why we are focused on building this."
Animated GIF of the Year!
To your point, the Metaverse runs into the uncanny valley and will be very bad until it works.
As for generative AI and Big Tech's data harvesting, that is the future we are actively trying to avoid. While generative AI can be a useful tool, it shouldn't be a replacement for real human connection. This is why we are building an information-sharing platform focused on collaboration where the users own their data, the community governs the protocol, there are no advertisers, everyone is paid for their contributions, and all content is verifiably human-generated.
Hoping that gives some faith, but it will be an uphill battle.