Surreal Reality

 

surreal

For a while I wondered why Facebook acquired Oculus. It didn’t make sense to me at the time, but now I understand. They did it to influence the world we choose to experience as well as the social media experience. And if you don’t believe that Facebook will attempt to create the experience it wants you to have with this technology, you don’t understand Facebook.

This picture is worth a thousand cold chills down the spine.

I will never purchase an Oculus Rift. Not because I don’t think VR is an awesome technology with a lot of potential, but because I don’t trust those who attempt to control how I perceive the world. They offer convenient solutions to communications problems, but their asking price is too high.

It’s not a price we pay in dollars, or even data, but in perception. We use their platform, thus we perceive things as they present them to us. It’s not even the personal data collection that bothers me the most; it’s the hook into my senses these platforms have acquired. And since we can only perceive reality, what they show us becomes reality.

And what’s more, it’s all voluntary. We strap ourselves into the Ludovico Chair. We even fill out the forms and give them reams of personal data. We have surrendered our perceptions to technology, communications, and media platforms which are increasingly hostile to unapproved thoughts.

If they offered this device for free it would be a steal, for them. I pray Oculus fails, because it’s too creepy. Not even George Orwell could have dreamed up something more Orwellian. I hope it also helps illustrates how truly unsettling Facebook is.

Published in General
Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 24 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. David Sussman Member
    David Sussman
    @DaveSussman

    images (1)

    • #1
  2. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Good thing VR devices give me vertigo an nausea.  Can’t use ’em.

    • #2
  3. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Thanks for this. It’s  one of the things people should be shouting about & I’m glad to hear some of the decibels.

    I’ve one remark: People who say, Orwell could never have imagined! should probably just read Aldoux Huxley instead!

    • #3
  4. Jordan Inactive
    Jordan
    @Jordan

    Titus Techera:Thanks for this. It’s one of the things people should be shouting about & I’m glad to hear some of the decibels.

    I’ve one remark: People who say, Orwell could never have imagined! should probably just read Aldoux Huxley instead!

    Indeed.

    I think Huxley had the more accurate vision of the future.  Jack boots stomping on your face forever isn’t sustainable.  Our animal instincts kick in.

    I should re-read Huxley.

    • #4
  5. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    Or you could just use it for limited experiences. Owning a laptop doesn’t make you a slave to online forums (present forum excluded, of course). Owning a TV doesn’t mean you have to watch the nightly news or live programming.

    Facebook is a software company. VR is hardware. So long as hardware and software (content) remain generally distinct from each other, there’s not a problem. I’m sure Facebook would love to monitor everything you do in VR and manipulate you through directed experiences. But that doesn’t seem to be a great danger in the near future.

    For now, VR has yet to prove that there’s a significant market.

    • #5
  6. Frozen Chosen Inactive
    Frozen Chosen
    @FrozenChosen

    The fake world Facebook creates will make spending time on Ricochet even more imperative!

    • #6
  7. Jordan Inactive
    Jordan
    @Jordan

    Aaron Miller:Or you could just use it for limited experiences. Owning a laptop doesn’t make you a slave to online forums (present forum excluded, of course). Owning a TV doesn’t mean you have to watch the nightly news or live programming.

    Facebook is a software company. VR is hardware. So long as hardware and software (content) remain generally distinct from each other, there’s not a problem. I’m sure Facebook would love to monitor everything you do in VR and manipulate you through directed experiences. But that doesn’t seem to be a great danger in the near future.

    For now, VR has yet to prove that there’s a significant market.

    The captains of industry on the left are, to their credit, willing to spend billions on unprofitable (and even loss-creating) endeavors to shape culture.  Conservatives expect a return on investment.  This makes sense financially, but not culturally.  And in the very long term, it doesn’t make sense financially even, because culture shapes politics and markets eventually.

    I don’t think looking at Facebook as a simply software company is the right way to see it.  Software is a means to an end.  They produce a unified experience through which their users perceive social experiences.  VR will be a part of that experience sooner or later.  And the way that experience has been shaped thus far makes me deeply distrustful.

    • #7
  8. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    Jordan:

    Titus Techera:Thanks for this. It’s one of the things people should be shouting about & I’m glad to hear some of the decibels.

    I’ve one remark: People who say, Orwell could never have imagined! should probably just read Aldoux Huxley instead!

    Indeed.

    I think Huxley had the more accurate vision of the future. Jack boots stomping on your face forever isn’t sustainable. Our animal instincts kick in.

    I should re-read Huxley.

    Re-read 1984.  Especially the afterward about restricting thought by restricting language.

    • #8
  9. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    I really don’t see much difference between what we have now and this new VR stuff.
    Actually, I think it’s even more important to recognize how much we are already at effect.

    • #9
  10. blank generation member Inactive
    blank generation member
    @blankgenerationmember

    No women in that promo photo from what I could tell.

    • #10
  11. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    Want to influence culture through technology? Make video games. Ubisoft reports that approximately 6.4 million gamers joined the open beta test for Tom Clancy’s The Division across the 3 hardware platforms (PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4). Again, the complete and polished game hasn’t even been released yet, but a demo was played by millions.

    Novels and movies teach either by explanation or by role modeling. Games / interactive media can also do that, but additionally teach by rewarding or punishing the audience’s own choices within a virtual experience. The most powerful persuasion occurs when the listener doesn’t even realize he is listening to an argument.

    • #11
  12. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    blank generation member:No women in that promo photo from what I could tell.

    I noticed that, too. Maybe while all the nerdy white guys are having virtual experiences, the rest of us are having real experiences?

    That’s my optimism talking; we’re probably out back,  making babies and laundering all those blue jeans and button-down shirts.

    • #12
  13. blank generation member Inactive
    blank generation member
    @blankgenerationmember

    Kate Braestrup:

    blank generation member:No women in that promo photo from what I could tell.

    I noticed that, too. Maybe while all the nerdy white guys are having virtual experiences, the rest of us are having real experiences?

    That’s my optimism talking; we’re probably out back, making babies and laundering all those blue jeans and button-down shirts.

    Personally I think you are being too kind.  I’m just hoping Mr. Zuckerberg didn’t have them dropping their pants in unison to whatever Japanese anime was on the display.

    • #13
  14. TeamAmerica Member
    TeamAmerica
    @TeamAmerica

    @Jordan- “VR will be a part of that experience sooner or later. And the way that experience has been shaped thus far makes me deeply distrustful.”

    How do you mean?

    • #14
  15. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    blank generation member:

    Kate Braestrup:

    blank generation member:No women in that promo photo from what I could tell.

    I noticed that, too. Maybe while all the nerdy white guys are having virtual experiences, the rest of us are having real experiences?

    That’s my optimism talking; we’re probably out back, making babies and laundering all those blue jeans and button-down shirts.

    Personally I think you are being too kind. I’m just hoping Mr. Zuckerberg didn’t have them dropping their pants in unison to whatever Japanese anime was on the display.

    Are they all having the same virtual experience, or does each one get his own? Somebody gets Japanese anime, someone else gets midget porn?

    • #15
  16. Jordan Inactive
    Jordan
    @Jordan

    Kate Braestrup: Are they all having the same virtual experience, or does each one get his own? Somebody gets Japanese anime, someone else gets midget porn?

    We all get a unique virtual experience, from Facebook, just like everyone else.

    Franco:I really don’t see much difference between what we have now and this new VR stuff.
    Actually, I think it’s even more important to recognize how much we are already at effect.

    Yeah,  we already experience a virtual reality of sorts with social media.  VR will represent a refinement, not a paradigm shift.

    To TeamAmerica’s point, I’m suspicious of platforms with this kind of power.  For one particular reason, the refugee crisis criticisms were (and probably still are) suppressed, seemingly at the request of the German Government.

    • #16
  17. Melissa O'Sullivan Member
    Melissa O'Sullivan
    @melissaosullivan

    agreed.creepy.

    • #17
  18. PsychLynne Inactive
    PsychLynne
    @PsychLynne

    Huxley and Orwell have been mentioned, but for me the Neil Postman book Amusing Ourselves to Death was immediately what came to mind when I looked at the picture.
    Definitely worth reading if you haven’t.

    • #18
  19. Michael Brehm Lincoln
    Michael Brehm
    @MichaelBrehm

    I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking that it would be a sort of relief if Mark Zuckerberg would just snap and go full-Howard Hughes one day. He would be a far more likable personality if he just sequestered himself away in a casino penthouse and micturated in mason jars.

    • #19
  20. John Seymour Member
    John Seymour
    @

    Aaron Miller: Owning a laptop doesn’t make you a slave to online forums (present forum excluded, of course).

    Dang!  I guess I should have read the fine print.

    • #20
  21. John Seymour Member
    John Seymour
    @

    Franco:I really don’t see much difference between what we have now and this new VR stuff.
    Actually, I think it’s even more important to recognize how much we are already at effect.

    That’s what I was thinking.

    • #21
  22. John Seymour Member
    John Seymour
    @

    Titus Techera: I’ve one remark: People who say, Orwell could never have imagined! should probably just read Aldoux Huxley instead!

    or Yevgeny Zamyatin. 

    • #22
  23. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    John Seymour:

    Titus Techera: I’ve one remark: People who say, Orwell could never have imagined! should probably just read Aldoux Huxley instead!

    or Yevgeny Zamyatin.

    I take that as your earnest pledge to write a post introducing the man! These are good times for this kind of reading on Ricochet & the more so the political fever advances!

    • #23
  24. EThompson Member
    EThompson
    @

    My bad. I luvv Mark Zuckerberg; he’s the bomb and most importantly, he’ll allow me to retire 5 years earlier than planned.

    • #24
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.