The World that Google Wants to See
March 22, 2024
If Big Tech companies have observed anything about human nature in their rise to economic, political, and cultural dominance, it is that Homo sapiens prefer artificial, digital experiences to the places and relationships their bodies actually inhabit. Big Tech has found that its consumers hold onto reality lightly, and appear endlessly willing to enter cyberspace to live as, and among, digital avatars.
With this knowledge, Facebook re-formed as Meta Platforms, and its next major initiative, the Metaverse, is not a tool but a total reframing of how human beings relate to reality itself. According to the marketing, when inside the Metaverse, the world and one’s very person become entirely bendable to one’s will. The next Apple product, Apple Vision Pro, was likewise produced with a conviction that the short distance between one’s eyes and one’s smartphone was actually too far for most people. Apple observed that humans prefer to see the whole world through the perspective of the device; with Apple Vision Pro, their device can actually map over their physical surroundings with visual information and provide cues for action. If people ever feel uncomfortable in their immediate surroundings, they can just turn the dial and enter the metaverse, where they can be any place they want at any time. Big Tech is making trillions with the insight that human beings are eager to be herded en masse into digitally reimagined worlds.
