> Done right, we could have ended up in a sci-fi future strapped to our VR headsets all day long

When I read this phrase, the spaceship from Wall-E comes to mind. But in reality, it would probably look a little bit more dystopian than what Pixar imagined...

Most people would say they HATE this future, but most people would LOVE this future. As passive infotainment consumers, stereotypical scroolers, they are already glued to TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, reddit and whatever other digital dopamine dispenser and skinner box there. Significantly improve on that with pleasant, increased or even full immersion and you got the next big thing.

...they say, posting on HN, a slightly watered down dopamine dispenser brought to you by the people that made Reddit happen.

I still think VR might be a hard sell for most people. As dumb as large groups of people may be, it's clear that people are ditching FB and slowly backing away from a lot of social media. It's tricking out that it's not always a great thing, and there is legit buy-in from huge chunks of the Left and Right to restrict what social media does.

All of this stuff is locked behind AR/VR glasses that are close enough in size, shape, and weight to normal sunglasses. If someone manages to build that, it'll be the biggest thing to hit computing since the smartphone. If not, it's all going nowhere.

> ...they say, posting on HN, a slightly watered down dopamine dispenser brought to you by the people that made Reddit happen.

I by no means wanted to exclude myself from the groups I so derogatively named. Hacker News is pure infotainment to me. The quality is above reddit though, but that's not a high bar.

> it's clear that people are ditching FB and slowly backing away from a lot of social media

Are they? To me it looks like TikTok addiction and stupidity is continuously peaking.

I'd say HN quality is way way better than Reddit, entirely due to the audience. Reddit is very much anti-knowledge, anti-solution, anti-reason whereas HN features intelligent discussions, often supported by facts.

It's really not clear that people are ditching FB. They showed 20% more ads last quarter than in the quarter the year before.

You forgot to add miserable and depressed to your list

I mean, the Wall-E one already looked _extremely_ dystopian.

The video for "Do the Evolution" by Pearl Jam.

From what I understand, he would like to be remembered similarly to Steve Jobs, as an inventor of the future. I think this was his way of doing that.

People loved Steve Jobs though whereas people hate Mark.

He failed to produce his own brand. The only thing that comes to mind when anyone thinks about Mark is "Facebook scandals", "looks, moves and talks like a reptiloid/robot" and "the mataverse that no one wanted failure (no legs!)". I bet he wishes he would have been what Elon Musk was, someone with pretty much his own cult. Elon Musk still has his cult followers and online knights despite his increasingly erratic behavior and general unpleasantness.

Not everyone loves Steve Jobs. Lots of people don't. I don't.

I do hate that Zuck ruined the word meta for everyone.

Steve Jobs was a misanthropic douche who routinely abused his own staff and screwed over many of those around him, including, famously, Woz.

He just had really, really good marketing, and products that landed at just the right time.

Your characterization of him is correct, but he didn't accomplish what he did through sheer luck and marketing; he also had a really good sense of what (average) consumers wanted in a technology product, which his competitors seemed to mostly lack.

Steve Jobs "landing products at just the right time" is a synonym for "was a wildly successful businessman".

The only thing that is vastly better in VR than in reality are horror games. While one can laugh on how silly/unfrightening the movie nightmare on the Elm street is, a proper VR jump scare can easily lead to a heart attack when following some quiet period of gameplay. Not sure if this was the intended effect as it would likely reduce the number of consumers once for all.