On Monday, Facebook announced the launch of a platform that will set in motion a process that will catastrophically terminate the world as we know it. Known by the end-user as the rather demure 'Messages', and internally as Project Titan, it is only those that look toward the future that know its true name: Skynet.The future can be defined as a flow of time that has the potential to become anything. With an almost-infinite number of possibilities, it's no surprise that we occasionally get dizzily lost in our thoughts of the future. It's also no surprise that most of our life is about making choices, for it is the only way we can control our future. Should I get out of bed? What should I make for lunch? Who will I meet today? Should I ask her out? These are all choices, all decisions that irrevocably alter the future.
Unless we choose for something to happen -- unless we cause an event to occur -- everything else happens to us. When you lose the power of choice, you lose the power to affect your future. You are no longer you -- instead, you are the punching bag of the universe.
Which brings us back to Facebook. We are rapidly approaching a point in time -- a technological singularity -- where Facebook knows enough about you, me and all of mankind that it can make better choices than us.
Continue reading Facebook -- with or without Google -- will destroy the world as we know it
Filed under: Social Software, Op-Ed
Facebook -- with or without Google -- will destroy the world as we know it originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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