6 ms·

Mark Zuckerberg's vision for humanity is terrifying

80 points by SirLJ 1y ago

tinktank 1y ago
Mark Zuckerberg is terrifying.
dangus 1y ago
The irony is that Zuck is trying to solve problems created by his own apps. Make a social isolation app and attention sink, sell virtual friends to fill the void. The best advice is to delete your Meta accounts and meet people in real life.
- wbobbjns 1y ago
  Staying off of social media is the best idea ever, followed by not watching TV/movies, not reading the news, and staying off of... oh, I guess I’m on HN.
  - platevoltage 1y ago
    I got off instagram after the great capitulation and it’s done wonders for my mental health. The hardest part was accepting the fact that I’ll probably never interact with the couple hundred acquaintances I’ve met over the last 10 years or so ever again.
  - lern_too_spel 1y ago
    If the social media app is optimized for profit, and the owner measures and does not care about the harm to your health and the health of society if it even slightly impacts profit, do not use it.
  - trainsarebetter 1y ago
    deleting fb and instagram, essentially when I was a teenager (which I saw early on was contributing to my depression) was best decision I every made. I moved to a small town from the big city and learned to socialize with people. Coming back old friends comment of how outgoing and easy it is for me to connect with people.
bmitc 1y ago
Then stop listening to him?
- platevoltage 1y ago
  I hope the implication here isn’t that if you ignore extremely powerful people, they can’t affect your life.
  - bmitc 1y ago
    What do people propose?
    - nosioptar 1y ago
      Eat the rich? "To Serve Man" has some pretty good recipes.
adidoit 1y ago
Social media itself has become pretty bleak. "Today, only a fraction of time spent on Meta’s services – 7% on Instagram, 17% on Facebook – involves consuming content from online “friends” (“friend sharing”). A majority of time spent on both apps is watching videos, increasingly short-form videos that are “unconnected” – i.e., not from a friend or followed account – and recommended by AI-powered algorithms Meta developed as a direct competitive response to TikTok’s rise, which stalled Meta’s growth" "Social" media is just media now.
- adidoit 1y ago
  https://stratechery.com/2025/meta-earnings-meta-turns-the-dial-social-network-r-i-p/ https://stratechery.com/2025/meta-earnings-meta-turns-the-di...
- Fade_Dance 1y ago
  It is addiction media, or dopamine hacking media. Meta's recent earnings report was great partially because AI was used to boost engagement on ads by 5% to 10%, which was enough to get investors on board for the massive capex. ("Datacenters the size of Manhattan" as per Zuckerberg). Datacenters the size of Manhattan and dedicated nuclear power plants, for an 8.5% boost in advertising engagement. The world is in a very sad state in some respects. The ideal end state of this optimization process is quite literally zombie consumers. I would think that heading off outcomes like this is partly why we create rules and guardrails as a society, but despite the occasional pushback, I do think that for now we are generally embracing this dystopia. I'm a positive person and think AI is incredible and will do many great things, but Meta's earnings report got to me.
  - adidoit 1y ago
    Yes. I do genuinely think AI can be amazing and I quit my job to build something that I hope will be a positive use case of AI But these stats are troubling Not to mention a backlash is brewing amongst people who both don't want to use AI and don't want their world to change so quickly.
  - matthewdgreen 1y ago
mgh2 1y ago
Mark became an expert at catering to investors' ears to pump the stock: buybacks, dividends, metaverse, AI...
- thrown-0825 1y ago
  Its the only job hes ever had. Hes a professional sociopath whose entire existence revolves around building the most advanced social engineering platform that has ever existed. World would be a better place if he drowned the next time he went surfing at his private beach.
  - cindyllm 1y ago
    [dead]
  - mgh2 1y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrOqnZdvI6M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrOqnZdvI6M
sidcool 1y ago
I still don't understand how the general public trusts anything Mark says. Investors, I understand, they only care about money, and perhaps rightfully so. But the community, why?
- pk-protect-ai 1y ago
  I still don't understand how the general public trusts anything the media says or what the general public says... Critical thinking is not what most of the population is taught. Meta being Meta is nothing surprising. Why do people even bother using Instagram and Facebook?
- thrown-0825 1y ago
  Public opinion doesn’t matter anymore, thats why billionaires like him are building doomsday bunkers on remote islands. Their plan is to watch the world burn.
- SpicyLemonZest 1y ago
  He just doesn't seem particularly untrustworthy. I don't agree with his vision for humanity, but given the amount of money he's tossing at AI researchers, it seems clear that he genuinely believes it and is genuinely pursuing it.
  - wkat4242 1y ago
    I think the OP meant the general public trusting him with our data. Rather than some promises he made to some investors.
- breve 1y ago
  Zuckerberg doesn't think he should be trusted. He thinks Meta users are dumb fucks for trusting him: https://www.theregister.com/2010/05/14/facebook_trust_dumb/ https://www.theregister.com/2010/05/14/facebook_trust_dumb/
- xg15 1y ago
  Where does the general public trust him? The general public uses Facebook to keep in touch with people or look at cat videos - and Facebook of course does whatever Mark wants. But I don't see how any trust between him and his users is involved.
justlikereddit 1y ago
>Deny cookies >Deny signups >Notification blocked. >Scroll down 2 screens consisting or 1.7 screens worth of ads. >The ad-video I scrolled past becomes a sticky party of the header and consumes 30% of the screen real estate. Despite this a new static ad enters my screen before the last one is out of it. Oh yeah it's totally Zucks vision that is the horror here.
- wkat4242 1y ago
  That's why I will never give up my adblocker. And I never make exceptions.. That page loaded cleanly for me.
Xmd5a 1y ago
Mark Zuckerberg -> Kingsman's Richmond Valentine Jeff Bezos -> Austin Power's Dr. Evil Elon Musk -> The 5th Element's Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg
phendrenad2 1y ago
This is the problem with increased wealth disparity. We're all subject to the whims and fleeting thoughts of the top 20 billionaires. If Mark Z has an idea about social media, well, he controls 80% or something of social media. Even if his idea is terrible, we have no alternatives to switch to, we just have to wait out the irrationality.

80 points by SirLJ 1y ago

Mark Zuckerberg is terrifying.

The irony is that Zuck is trying to solve problems created by his own apps. Make a social isolation app and attention sink, sell virtual friends to fill the void. The best advice is to delete your Meta accounts and meet people in real life.

wbobbjns 1y ago
Staying off of social media is the best idea ever, followed by not watching TV/movies, not reading the news, and staying off of... oh, I guess I’m on HN.
- platevoltage 1y ago
  I got off instagram after the great capitulation and it’s done wonders for my mental health. The hardest part was accepting the fact that I’ll probably never interact with the couple hundred acquaintances I’ve met over the last 10 years or so ever again.
- lern_too_spel 1y ago
  If the social media app is optimized for profit, and the owner measures and does not care about the harm to your health and the health of society if it even slightly impacts profit, do not use it.
- trainsarebetter 1y ago
  deleting fb and instagram, essentially when I was a teenager (which I saw early on was contributing to my depression) was best decision I every made. I moved to a small town from the big city and learned to socialize with people. Coming back old friends comment of how outgoing and easy it is for me to connect with people.

bmitc 1y ago

Then stop listening to him?

platevoltage 1y ago
I hope the implication here isn’t that if you ignore extremely powerful people, they can’t affect your life.
- bmitc 1y ago
  What do people propose?
  - nosioptar 1y ago
    Eat the rich? "To Serve Man" has some pretty good recipes.

adidoit 1y ago

Social media itself has become pretty bleak. "Today, only a fraction of time spent on Meta’s services – 7% on Instagram, 17% on Facebook – involves consuming content from online “friends” (“friend sharing”). A majority of time spent on both apps is watching videos, increasingly short-form videos that are “unconnected” – i.e., not from a friend or followed account – and recommended by AI-powered algorithms Meta developed as a direct competitive response to TikTok’s rise, which stalled Meta’s growth" "Social" media is just media now.

adidoit 1y ago
https://stratechery.com/2025/meta-earnings-meta-turns-the-dial-social-network-r-i-p/ https://stratechery.com/2025/meta-earnings-meta-turns-the-di...
Fade_Dance 1y ago
It is addiction media, or dopamine hacking media. Meta's recent earnings report was great partially because AI was used to boost engagement on ads by 5% to 10%, which was enough to get investors on board for the massive capex. ("Datacenters the size of Manhattan" as per Zuckerberg). Datacenters the size of Manhattan and dedicated nuclear power plants, for an 8.5% boost in advertising engagement. The world is in a very sad state in some respects. The ideal end state of this optimization process is quite literally zombie consumers. I would think that heading off outcomes like this is partly why we create rules and guardrails as a society, but despite the occasional pushback, I do think that for now we are generally embracing this dystopia. I'm a positive person and think AI is incredible and will do many great things, but Meta's earnings report got to me.
- adidoit 1y ago
  Yes. I do genuinely think AI can be amazing and I quit my job to build something that I hope will be a positive use case of AI But these stats are troubling Not to mention a backlash is brewing amongst people who both don't want to use AI and don't want their world to change so quickly.
- matthewdgreen 1y ago

mgh2 1y ago

Mark became an expert at catering to investors' ears to pump the stock: buybacks, dividends, metaverse, AI...

thrown-0825 1y ago
Its the only job hes ever had. Hes a professional sociopath whose entire existence revolves around building the most advanced social engineering platform that has ever existed. World would be a better place if he drowned the next time he went surfing at his private beach.
- cindyllm 1y ago
  [dead]
- mgh2 1y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrOqnZdvI6M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrOqnZdvI6M

sidcool 1y ago

I still don't understand how the general public trusts anything Mark says. Investors, I understand, they only care about money, and perhaps rightfully so. But the community, why?

pk-protect-ai 1y ago
I still don't understand how the general public trusts anything the media says or what the general public says... Critical thinking is not what most of the population is taught. Meta being Meta is nothing surprising. Why do people even bother using Instagram and Facebook?
thrown-0825 1y ago
Public opinion doesn’t matter anymore, thats why billionaires like him are building doomsday bunkers on remote islands. Their plan is to watch the world burn.
SpicyLemonZest 1y ago
He just doesn't seem particularly untrustworthy. I don't agree with his vision for humanity, but given the amount of money he's tossing at AI researchers, it seems clear that he genuinely believes it and is genuinely pursuing it.
- wkat4242 1y ago
  I think the OP meant the general public trusting him with our data. Rather than some promises he made to some investors.
breve 1y ago
Zuckerberg doesn't think he should be trusted. He thinks Meta users are dumb fucks for trusting him: https://www.theregister.com/2010/05/14/facebook_trust_dumb/ https://www.theregister.com/2010/05/14/facebook_trust_dumb/
xg15 1y ago
Where does the general public trust him? The general public uses Facebook to keep in touch with people or look at cat videos - and Facebook of course does whatever Mark wants. But I don't see how any trust between him and his users is involved.

justlikereddit 1y ago

>Deny cookies >Deny signups >Notification blocked. >Scroll down 2 screens consisting or 1.7 screens worth of ads. >The ad-video I scrolled past becomes a sticky party of the header and consumes 30% of the screen real estate. Despite this a new static ad enters my screen before the last one is out of it. Oh yeah it's totally Zucks vision that is the horror here.

wkat4242 1y ago
That's why I will never give up my adblocker. And I never make exceptions.. That page loaded cleanly for me.

Xmd5a 1y ago

Mark Zuckerberg -> Kingsman's Richmond Valentine Jeff Bezos -> Austin Power's Dr. Evil Elon Musk -> The 5th Element's Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg

phendrenad2 1y ago

This is the problem with increased wealth disparity. We're all subject to the whims and fleeting thoughts of the top 20 billionaires. If Mark Z has an idea about social media, well, he controls 80% or something of social media. Even if his idea is terrible, we have no alternatives to switch to, we just have to wait out the irrationality.