That eerie, technologically-driven dystopia we all imagine when we think of ‘the future’ has arrived – at least that’s what Facebook’s recent announcement has led us to believe.
With the declaration on Thursday of the company’s new name, Meta, the company seeks to plant their metaphoric digital flag deep into cyberspace.
Whilst this might be a bold assertion, the choice of name is quite remarkable. ‘Meta’ is of course short for metaverse, a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment, including other users. Company name changes in the past have been part and parcel with reputational rebrands, though, for example, no-one calls ‘Google’ by it’s real name, ‘Alphabet’, and likely the same will happen with Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s humanoid-like creator and CEO, has described how the company will now focus on ‘helping to build the metaverse, a place where we’ll play and connect in 3D. Welcome to the next chapter of social connection.’
Still thinking about when Mark Zuckerberg said this pic.twitter.com/Cx546B27SH
— Alex Kehr (@alexkehr) October 28, 2021
Changing name to Meat
— Wendy’s (@Wendys) October 28, 2021
Last week, it announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to help it build this online realm. Mr Zuckerberg expects the metaverse to reach a billion people within the decade.
Such a pivot has inevitably raised eyebrows from the public, politicians, and even other companies. Perhaps the prize for the greatest response goes to the fast-food chain Wendy’s, who mocked the audacity of renaming yourself after a mere concept. ‘Changing name to meat,’ the company Tweeted. #DeleteFacebook was also trending on Friday morning.
The company’s move has evidently sparked concern amongst one of our most primordial fears: the future, one in which we have no control. Given the term ‘metaverse’ originated from Neal Stephenson’ sci-fi novel Snow Crash, here are seven dystopian conglomerations of power in wider culture that seem to turn science fiction into science prediction.
29th June 1965: O’Brien (played by Joseph O’Conor) tortures the hapless Winston Smith (David Buck) in a BBC TV production of 1984. (Photo by Larry Ellis/Express/Getty Images).
1984 (1949), Oceania
Perhaps the most well-known of dystopian states amongst the English canon, Oceania is the totalitarian superstate ruled by the Party, who employ Thought Police to homogenise society and eradicate individuality. Kept in a perpetual state of war for capitalist gains, as Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia engage in endless conflict, this is a violent and gruesome world with physical harm and tortured used as the ultimate maintenance of Order.
Aldous Leonard Huxley. (Photo by Elizabeth Chat/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Brave New World (1932), World State
As a counterpoint to 1984 is Aldous Huxley’s most famous novel, Brave New World (1932), which is set in the unified World State in 2450 A.D. Here, social stability is the order of the day with mantras like ‘everybody’s happy now’ being socially conditioned into everyone’s minds. There is no violence, no war, no bloodshed, as the strictly class-structured society is given the drug soma to remove any negativity. Huxley saw with remarkable prescience that if a dystopian state were to arise, it would be through the manipulation of our pleasures by a company such as Ford, which has a God-like existence in World State. Is this not like the company with a recent announcement, who use algorithms to dictate our tastes gratifications? I’ll let you decide…
Fortress, Men-Tel Corporation
Another instance of there being more to just a name is the Men-Tel corporation in Stuart Gordon’s 1992 sci-fi action film Fortress, implants ‘Intestinators’ in its prison subjects to mentally condition them. But it doesn’t just stop there, as these devices can also inflict severe pain or death at will. In this half-human, half-robot world, cyborgs abound and leaves you wondering what’s real and what isn’t – and if that doesn’t do the job, the mind-wipe chamber will.
Blade Runner, Tyrell Corporation
Named after its founder and CEO, Dr. Eldon Tyrell, Tyrell Corp is the all-powerful mega company set in a dystopian 2019 Los Angeles (the future really is now, or we’re even passed it). Tyrell Corp creates synthetic humans, known as Replicants, to work at its space colonies. We even have robotic AI artists today, so just a concept is by no means a million lightyears away. Ridley Scott’s cult classic Blade Runner (1982), in which Tyrell Corp resides, was of course based on Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The answer: who knows, but if sheep could work an Android phone, they’d almost definitely have Facebook on it.
Ratchet and Clank, Megacorp
Albeit part of a relatively light-hearted video game many of us will have devoured as kids, the Megacorp in Ratchet and Clank is by no means less invasive or destructive. One of their products, the Triple-B – or ‘Big Badass Bomb’, to give it its full title – helped it wipe out all competition. Its growth also came with scant regard for the environment, with the planet Tabora, for instance, being wiped out so it could be mined more easily. In the run-up to Cop26, we should be wary of this profit-at-all-cost mindset.
The Terminator, SkyNet
Much of the fear at the heart of the developments in AI is that it eventually will overtake us; the fear that once powerful enough, the machines will grow stronger than their creators and seek to eradicate us all. It’s a concern that has been raised by the very brightest minds amongst us. This tipping-point of machine-learnt consciousness is arguably best encapsulated by SkyNet in The Terminator. Once it developed to a certain stage, it regarded humanity as a threat to its existence, triggering a nuclear explosion: Judgment Day. Perhaps Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his role of Governor of California, can apply some of his knowledge from the films to any real-world eventuality.
Doctor Who, Cybus Industries
Doctor Who fans will be elated by the news of Russell T Davies’ return to the time-travelling TV classic. Perhaps he’ll find a way to weave in recent developments to make a drama with greater relevance. He could do worse than exploiting the use of Cybus Industries, a company that exists on an alternate Earth, founded and run by the business tycoon John Lumic. The enterprise is of course the creator of the Doctor’s all-too-frequent nemesis in the Cybermen. These emotionless pounds of metal seek out other humans to convert them into their ranks. Is this not an exceptional metaphor for social media? A ‘digital detox’, after all, is no easy feat.
Whilst these dystopias are perhaps a world away from Facebook’s – sorry, Meta’s – recent announcement, they’re worthy of exploration. Sometimes the truth, after all, is stranger than fiction.
