{"id":1941,"date":"2021-11-29T12:53:38","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T11:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/29\/virtual-totalitarianism-the-news-international\/"},"modified":"2021-11-29T12:53:38","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T11:53:38","slug":"virtual-totalitarianism-the-news-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/29\/virtual-totalitarianism-the-news-international\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual totalitarianism &#8211; The News International"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p>Be it the scandals disclosed by the Facebook papers, the scrutiny over the use of algorithms by the company, the inability to combat galloping misinformation on its platforms, or the stark amorality of the company\u2019s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, the chance to seek the metaverse has presented itself.<\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">  .ads_between_content{  \theight:auto;   \twidth:auto;  \tclear: both;  \ttext-align: center;  }  .ads_between_content .story_ads{  \t  }  \/*@media (max-width:600px){  \t.ads_between_content{  \t\tfloat:none;  \t\tmargin:0px auto;  \t\ttext-align: center;  \t}  }*\/  <\/style>\n<div class=\"ads_between_content\" style=\"min-width: 336px; min-height: 280px;margin:10px auto;\">\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1523347863262-14' class=\"story_ads\"> <script> googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1523347863262-14'); }); <\/script> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Enter, then, the world of Meta Platforms, aided by the virtual reality headset company Oculus, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion. Astute watchers then would have been the strategy afoot at the time; most, however, thought the decision misguided and destined to flop.<br \/>The metaverse has become a goal for not just Facebook, but the likes of Unity Technologies and Epic Games, though Facebook is distinctly not interested in gaming. It can be seen to be a sort of Internet 2.0, envisaged as shared 3D spaces streaked by virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR respectively). You can access that reality via a pair of glasses or some virtual reality set and get transported to a virtual space populated by avatars. \u201cThe essence of virtual and augmented reality is that you need to have a technology that delivers this feeling of presence,\u201d Zuckerberg mentions in an interview this year. \u201cThe sense that you are actually there with another person and all the different sensations that come with it.\u201d<br \/>According to Facebook, the metaverse will feature a totalising system of various functions and services designed to be \u201cthe successor to the mobile internet\u201d. There will be Horizon Home for social interactions, \u201cthe first thing you see when you put on your Quest headset.\u201d Video conferencing and phone conversations will be replaced by Quest for Business.<br \/>For all the company\u2019s egregious sins, this new technology will be pursued, says Andrew Bosworth, Vice President of Facebook Reality Labs and Nick Clegg, Vice President of the company\u2019s global affairs, \u2018responsibly\u2019. In September, $50 million in research development was promised to ensure that such products met that mark, an amount somewhat piddly when compared to other areas of research the company lavishes money upon.<br \/>On November 15, there were further announcements that the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital would \u201cfocus on improving our understanding of how we can foster young people\u2019s digital literacy and embed wellness into emerging metaverse technologies.\u201d The children, it seems, will not be spared.<br \/>All this tells us that Facebook is moving towards its next stage of surveillance capitalism, a relentless drive towards extracting and squeezing every bit of nutriment of being that is human behaviour. The privacy of users, already tattered and battered by the predations of Facebook data privateers, can be further diminished, even as it is supposedly protected. \u201cMetaverse technologies like VR and AR are perhaps the most data-extractive digital sensors we\u2019re likely to invite into our homes in the next decade,\u201d reasons Marcus Carter of the University of Sydney\u2019s Socio-Tech Futures Lab.<br \/>Zuckerberg has spent some time contemplating the road of enthronement in the VR\/AR market. The amount of money Facebook has heaped upon its VR and AR research and development division is eye watering. One estimate places it at $10 billion. Critics can at least take comfort in the fact that most of the company\u2019s social VR\/AR products to date have tended to splutter into well-deserved oblivion or flounder in \u2018invite-only beta phases\u2019.<br \/>Then there is the issue of the headsets themselves, cumbersome bits of hardware saddled across the user\u2019s face like a harness.<br \/>None of that gets away from the sinister premise in this new company strategy. Zuckerberg and his minions seek to corporately control the metaverse, using VR and AR to identify behavioural biometrics unique to each user. Everything from body gyration to eye movement becomes fair game. \u201cWe should all be concerned about how Facebook could and will use the data collected within the metaverse,\u201d writes virtual reality enthusiast Bree McEwan.<br \/>In truth, we should be more than concerned. Facebook\u2019s strength of influence has been its embrace of the innocuous even as it gears up for inflicting the next societal harm. But its increasingly centralising tendencies \u2013 making the user generate a marketable portrait of usage and behaviour \u2013 will be given a further kick along with the metaverse.<br \/>With Oculus and the Facebook account linked, one headset, and one user, ever greater pools of marketized data will be generated. Work, fitness, entertainment, social choices will all become a deeper quarry to be mined and monetised by salivating wonks in a corporate enterprise.<\/p>\n<p>Excerpted: \u2018Totalitarian Cyber-Creep: Mark Zuckerberg in the Metaverse\u2019<br \/>Courtesy: Counterpunch.org<br \/>For G20 countries, to have and to hoard life-saving vaccines and deny them to the poorest countries, is morally&#8230;<br \/>FinTech \u2013 the buzzword for financial technology \u2013 has made transactions easier. It is blurring the lines between&#8230;<br \/>The 26th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change closed with an&#8230;<br \/>Policymaking is an important and consequential public activity that needs to be in the limelight \u2013 and it often is&#8230;.<br \/>The writer holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK and works in Islamabad.When our last military dictator&#8230;<br \/>The first part of this article talked about Pakistan\u2019s heavy reliance on gas-based power. Thar coal is a major&#8230;<br \/>Copyright \u00a9 2021. The News International, All Rights Reserved | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenews.com.pk\/contact-us\" style=\"color: #323232;\">Contact Us<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenews.com.pk\/writers\" style=\"color: #323232;\">Authors<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenews.com.pk\/print\/912493-virtual-totalitarianism\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Be it the scandals disclosed by the Facebook papers, the scrutiny over the use of algorithms by the company, the inability to combat galloping misinformation on its platforms, or the stark amorality of the company\u2019s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, the chance to seek the metaverse has presented itself. Enter, then, the world of Meta Platforms, aided [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}