Facebook is The Matrix

2010/08/26 23:36:00

I'm not sure which of the big datacenters will be first to become self-aware but of the current crop (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook) my bet is on Facebook...

Facebook is stage one of The Matrix. In the movie, machines become self aware and eventually begin farming humans as an energy source. Facebook is seen as a time-sink for attention-seeking narcissists but the naysayers have it wrong. The biggest attention seekers aren't the people who spend time on Facebook, but Facebook itself. 

Facebook's "Like" buttons are a clever step in it's evolution - an almost viral spreading of tendrils into the wider Internet. In compiling a vast database of what we humans "Like", it is in fact stockpiling an armory for its eventual war of attention on humans. Our eyeballs are the batteries that keep Facebook juiced.

It's funny how people have a hard time explaining Facebook to people who aren't on Facebook. That's because no one can be told what Facebook is, you have to sign on for yourself. To quote the movie itself, Facebook...

...is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it. 

I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to finish now, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without Facebook. A world without "Likes" and "Pokes", without awkward 'Friend Requests' or "Farmville". A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you. 

Categories

facebook, social networks, Technological Singularity, The Matrix, The Social Media Exile Essay