A pioneer of the internet warns the metaversein the wrong hands, has the potential to be the most dangerous technology since the invention of nuclear weapons — and those hands probably belong to Mark ZuckerbergCEO of meta†
Brian Shuster, who has 17 years of experience with the metaverse and has also created his own digital world called Utherverse, spoke to the Daily Mail about how people can abuse the metaverse for their own benefit.
Brian Shuster, who has 17 years of experience with the metaverse and has also created his own digital world called Utherverse, spoke to DailyMail.com about how people can abuse the metaverse for their own benefit.
“It could be used to brainwash entire populations and basically put them under the control of the puppeteer,” Shuster told DailyMail.com in a telephone interview.
‘I don’t believe Zuck or’ facebook will come to the conclusion that they can sacrifice money for the well-being and longevity of people.
“The money comes when people are happy or angry, [so you choose] which path are you [want to] valleys?
“We’ve seen the path that Facebook has taken, and they will take the same path when it comes to the metaverse.”
Zuckerberg once described the metaverse as “the successor to the mobile internet,” a series of virtual spaces where you can game, work, and interact with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you.
The idea is that we will spend more time in the virtual world than in the real world, a time where we wake up, put on the headset and stay there longer than we spend with the headset off – interacting, shopping, going out, working and going to going to school in the virtual world.
The CEO of Meta has also claimed that humanity will eventually enter its metaverse and leave their reality behind for a new world they control.
‘Nothing is random. Everything is algorithmically generated by computers, and we’ve seen what Facebook does with algorithms,” Shuster says.
“You may think you’ve met the love of your life in the metaverse, but this is Zuck deciding who you’re being matched with.
An internet pioneer warns that, in the wrong hands, the metaverse has the potential to be the most dangerous technology since the invention of nuclear weapons — and those hands likely belong to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
“Maybe you can grow up with one opinion, because the computer system thinks it’s the most profitable.
The concern is that there is a completely immersive brainwashing power of the metaverse.
Shuster also notes that we shouldn’t just be concerned about Zuckerberg, but anyone who puts profit before people.
Not only does Shuster fear that the metaverse has the potential to brainwash people, if in the wrong hands, of course, but he notes that it could create generations of isolated people — just Facebook has already done that.
“We already get so much less in the real world because of Zuck [referring to Facebook]† You can already hide who you are behind the screen. This is about in [his] metavers,” he explained.
‘She [Meta’s metaverse} has avatars, but are only a torso, head and arms. This precludes all kinds of activities.
Not only does Shuster fear the metaverse has the potential to brainwash people, if of course in the wrong hands, but he notes it could create generations of isolated people. He cites the lack of torso in Meta’s digital world. Without them there is no real interaction
‘As humans we need contact to feel emotionally supported. We need to go dancing, sit with people,’ Shuster said, while noting the avatars in his Utherverse have a torso and legs
‘As humans we need contact to feel emotionally supported. We need to go dancing, sit with people.
‘In Horizon, avatars can’t come within a few feet of each other. How do you give someone a hug and build real connections.
[This will] creating generations of isolated people who never get a good idea of what it means to be close to someone – to care about people.’
Meta’s Horizon Worlds is currently a test of its large metaverse. Currently an app, including in-app purchases for creators to sell virtual items and effects within their digital world.
And what Zuckerberg has done to Horizon is already “very damaging to humanity,” Shuster said.
“I started watching metaverse 19 years ago. I did it because I saw the future of a human Matrix, he told DailyMai.com.
“But this is the ultimate ability to control humanity. Left to its own devices, it could become a Facebook.”
Although Zuckerberg’s metaverse is still in its infancy, it has already made headlines for being a dangerous place.
In May, a woman was virtually raped by a stranger in Horizon Worlds, while another user “watched and passed a bottle of vodka,” according to a report by SumOfUs, a nonprofit campaigning to curb the growing power of corporations.
As a result, Meta said it has a “Personal Boundary” feature that keeps non-friends five feet away from users.
“There are all kinds of ways to go about this,” Shuster said.
“One way Meta tried to go about it is forcing boundaries so people can’t get close enough and remove legs and anything under the trash, which further isolates people over concerns that an avatar will be harassed.”
He continued to explain that Utherverse handles such incidents through a community operation.
“If someone is harassing you, you can put them on an ignore list and they disappear,” Shuster said.
‘You never end up in a place where you encounter them. If a person ends up on too many ignore lists, you can report them to community moderators and they could be banned.”
“Creating this kind of technology for real people is complicated and involves understanding the psychology of people and aspects of humanity, which I have no reason to believe [Zuckerberg] has some complacency to do.’