that's so meta

I didn't realize that Wall-E was a documentary sent to us from the future. I think I've seen Wall-E twice, and while the namesake robot was adorable (I think that was part of the point,) I was left with this general feel of unease. Due to so much personification of inanimate objects in movies, my mind was already prepped to sympathize with lovable robot Wall-E. Then towards the end of the movie you finally see the humans, and they are intended to look infantilized and lazy and make you feel disgusted. Almost like the humans are the villains, even though they literally did nothing but ride around on motor scooters and drink like big babies. They just seem less human than Wall-E and his girlfriend robot do.

 

Well guys, that's where we are headed. With Meta you can enter the metaverse and you never have to leave. Want a mansion? Unfortunately you can't have that in real life, but you can in Meta! You can have designer clothing and nice cars. You can be your best you. Your real you.

I'm not going to lie, it does look amazing, especially compared to the very drab and depressing way many people have had to live the past two years. I can understand the need and want for this escape. What a natural and opportune time for this specific technology to emerge for us to embrace.

But it is not real.

Here is an eleven minute video of Mark Zuckerberg explaining what he hopes Meta will become. At one point he says "You can decide when you want to be left alone. You can teleport and be alone in your little bubble." Or you could, you know, go outside and sit and think. Like I said, I can understand the allure of putting on literal rose tinted glasses and experiencing the world the way you personally create it. This is the love child of Black Mirror and Ready Player One. 

I do feel like people will flock to something like this without questioning any long term consequences. I imagine a VR experience this extreme will be highly addictive to most personality types. What is the long term effect on our actual bodies while we are addicted to spending all of our time in a room wearing a VR headset? Are we headed to be the humans in Wall-E?

Is the Meta verse going to be like Hotel California? You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.