Meta, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc

Technology
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I’ve found the move by Facebook/Meta to name their VR efforts “The Metaverse” quite annoying and presumptuous. Mark Zuckerberg has got some balls just taking a terms from a science fiction writer and reusing it for the same purpose.

I don’t mind tech companies reusing names from fiction, not normally. Because it’s usually a reference or homage or a bit of fun.

The Nexus 7 from google wasn’t ACTUALLY an attempt to make a Balderunner replicant.

The Falcon 9 by SpaceX isn’t ACTUALLY an attempt to make a Star Wars vehicle. The automated barge ships Just Read The Instructions, Of Course I Still Love You and A Shortfall of Gravitas aren’t ACTUALLY Culture General Service Vehicles.

But Facebook is wanting to create a VR world, explicitly modelled after the Metaverse in Snowcrash. To take ownership of that vision by coopting the name exactly just feels icky.

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Another real ship named for a Culture novel spaceship:

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Not just another, even, eight anothers in one, they really know how to stick to a theme.

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EDIT: Oof.

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I’m sure that many people who seek help from this customer service department will come back with horror stories to complain about. I’m sure some of them will be justified. But I’ve been pretty clear in asking something like this to be a legal requirement for all the major services. The fact that Meta is doing it voluntarily, I have no choice but to give them a +1. Good job Zuck. You did one thing right. Hope others, especially Google, follow suit.

Credit where credit is due.

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Read this whole thing. It’s a clusterfuck.
This especially took me by surprise.

There’s also a bunch of cryptobros in this board.

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Replace my pc … yeah I wanna wear some 2bs of equipment on my head for 8 hours a day. That wouldn’t cause any problems at aaaaalllllll.

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