Head Buzz – Is Facebook like Crack?

20 responses to “Head Buzz – Is Facebook like Crack?”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Dec 10, 2012 at 4:25 pm

   Rethink’s breakthrough robot graces the photo essay:
   
   D-Wave’s Quantum Computer also made the cover (right above Buzz’s buzz):
   

   Reply
2. 

   gsikich1

   Dec 10, 2012 at 4:52 pm

   Great subtitle on the cover. We have stopped solving big problems and that is because we are distracted by immediate gratification and the quick fix for things that are not fitted for a quick fix. Read Nassim Taleb’s new book "Antifragile" and Shiff on the next bubble – no quick fix! Great shots.

   Reply
3. 

   angry shock

   Dec 10, 2012 at 5:08 pm

   Oh sure, in historical terms what’s going on now with facebook, etc, in terms of years, or even decades, is like going to pee, or having a nap in the middle of an important activity.

   I think the statement as is (didn’t read the whole article) shows not only lot of prejudice but mental myopia. And a quite frightening fundamentalism of thought, on how things should be.

   Things are as they are. Period.

   I would expect from someone who went to the moon to have a really broad and integrating, systemic view on life on Earth, not the other way around. But, that is actually another prejudice. The only difference between mine and Aldrin’s is that I realize I am expecting something based on my preconceptions and worldview, whereas Mr. Aldrin seems to think he view is THE view.

   Didn’t it happen to occur to Aldrin that Facebook – as the epitome of all this overload of connectivity and seemingly distraction- is necessary to the whole evolutionary progress of humans and science and technology?

   Elon uses the money he made with PayPal to invest in Tesla and Space X…

   Reply
4. 

   seatonsnet

   Dec 10, 2012 at 6:32 pm

   Facebook has caused dictators to fall and people to be free. What is there so wonderful about colonies on Mars? Social change is easily as important as technological change and probably at our stage of development, where our technology has far outstripped our talent for living with one another, probably social change and communication are more important right now.

   Reply
5. 

   ukweli

   Dec 10, 2012 at 6:50 pm

   I think the disconnect is excitement about "how" versus understanding about "why" basically. Does colonizing mars on any real scale satisfy any reasonable "why?"

   I really don’t have a lot of respect for the opinions of an astronaut about general progress. These are the men and women who rode on the tip of hundreds of billions of non-competing dollars. Public will had nearly nothing to do with the moon landing, and I predict the same will be true with the Mars landing.

   Eh, Alieness said it better.

   Reply
6. 

   scleroplex

   Dec 10, 2012 at 10:30 pm

   the whole point of facebook now is delivering individual tracking data…..
   marketing is the world’s ultimate goal now.

   Reply
7. 

   BillS49

   Dec 11, 2012 at 1:07 am

   Thank you for being willing to back dreams of where mankind can go.

   Reply
8. 

   subarcticmike

   Dec 11, 2012 at 1:36 am

   today’s robot-led exploration / prelude may be the calm before the next storming of the solar system

   Reply
9. 

   sion1231

   Dec 11, 2012 at 7:11 am

   It is true, the present is incredibly exciting. Thanks to people like Elon Musk and others the possibilities of the present are starting to be realized. I don’t know about Facebook but Google at any rate revolutionized the revolution that is the internet. Here I am inspired by people like Elon Musk and commenting on the photo stream of someone significant who I would never have even heard of if it weren’t for the internet. I am just one of thousands if not millions who may be able to make a small difference influenced by truly exceptional role models. In aggregate the effect is very likely to be phenomenal. We can choose our Hero’s now. Before they were chosen for us.

   Reply
10. 

    -fCh-

    Dec 11, 2012 at 11:58 am

    "Facebook has caused dictators to fall and people to be free."

    On Mars, perhaps.

    (Blogged. Thanks Steve!)

    Reply
11. 

    RRNeal

    Dec 11, 2012 at 3:36 pm

    "The daily din of opportunism can create a head buzz that crowds out healthier fare." Indeed. Well stated.

    Reply
12. 

    Jim Rees

    Dec 12, 2012 at 3:49 am

    Where’s my jetpack? Flying car? Moving sidewalks? Pushbutton kitchen? Dog-walking robot? Those are the things I was promised.

    Reply
13. 

    angry shock

    Dec 12, 2012 at 4:13 am

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/83025347@N00] Exactly.

    Speaking of which… I was promised the Playmobile’s Pirateship and never got it. I know it’s not the same kind of promise, but still feels frustrating. And I am not in the cover of a magazine complaining.

    I came to terms with it.

    Reply
14. 

    andyi

    Dec 12, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    Well, also a palm-sized device that can correctly navigate you from wherever you are to the doorstep of the nearest emergency room, wherever that is, showing you aerial color imagery of every meter of the route.

    I mean, it hasn’t been a complete wash, Buzz. Also, have you played "Orbital"? It’s cool beans, seriously.

    Reply
15. 

    jgury

    Dec 27, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/48331433@N05] So I guess you are not swayed by more Mars colonies less crime arguments. If the film versions are correct we get more crime, dictators and social injustice along with more Mars colonies. But we do not have any historical basis for that as a social science observation unlike my discovery of the more Mosques less crime effect. That was in fact key to saving civilization from that difficult era of Mongol and barbarian lawlessness and social disruption. Of course they did not have the relatively low technology of firearms so any opposing militias were easily dealt with, one more thing which our founding fathers had the wisdom to make sure would not be an issue for us.

    Reply
16. 

    -fCh-

    Dec 27, 2012 at 4:59 pm

    Palm-size this and that are the equivalent of pocket watches as consolation prize for not discovering/colonizing the Americas…

    Reply
17. 

    -fCh-

    Dec 30, 2012 at 2:57 pm

    http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/JasonP

    Reply
18. 

    jgury

    Dec 30, 2012 at 10:07 pm

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/-fch-] The larger perspectives that these MIT big tech and science thinkers somehow overlook are the fundamental problems of humanity itself. Problems for which science and technology have no solutions while amplifying, propagating,enabling, accelerating, and creating new and more awful realities of human existence on this planet. The race to the moon is the entertaining sideshow in my estimation just as much as the vast wasteland of drivel and trivia that is Facebook. Twitter et. al. I agree with "seatonsnet" that the social problems are more important at this point. But, same as it ever was, the social problems are for all practical purposes impossible to solve since they go to the core of things like capitalism, democracy, religious freedoms, human rights, politics, economics, justice, problems of evil and more. Indeed, it is extremely difficult to make any humanist positive statements or even conceive of any big nation scale science adventure programs for global hope and change without surrendering to absolute fatalism. Fatalism, which is interestingly identical to many religious doctrines sans the rational enhancements of things like nihilism, comforts of absurdity, and existentialist despair. E.g, choosing to live in a Zen mountain monastery, or working as a contraceptives distributor, is much more sensible than wanting to be a Mars colonist and thinking that is a really important thing to do.

    Reply
19. 

    -fCh-

    Dec 31, 2012 at 12:52 pm

    "the social problems are more important at this point"

    With all due respect for two aware commentators, aren’t the social problems a life constant? This doesn’t mean we should not look to solve/alleviate them, but the discussion at hand here was about the type of discovery our society/civilization has been performing in contrast to what had been anticipated.

    As for one’s life choices, who am I to say what is more sensible between the alternatives you consider? Especially if I am to do so within this space.

    To return to the main idea, social fixes vs. our time’s discoveries. Are we clear as whether social media alleviates alienation, this negative externality of modernity for more than a century? Even if I lack the enthusiasm associated with these technologies, there is a glimmer of hope, and our conversation here must be some proof of that.

    The question then becomes: Are the social media technologies worth the societal investment, or is it too early to tell?

    On a different level, the question of limits to our technological/material/scientific progress is looming over. For one, capitalism has put its discursive thrust into technological progress as the proverbial tide that lifts all boats. Surely, some broken boats, aka social problems, won’t be fixed and sink nonetheless, which is that much more dramatic/contrasting to the r(a)ising others.

    Reply
20. 

    jgury

    Jan 2, 2013 at 8:46 am

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/-fch-]. Social problems are not constants in that they are evolving with humanity. Perspective has much to do with it as you can say things like WMDs are new innovations only in scale of destructive power or the choice to colonize Mars is just another exploration, the Internet is a better version of jungle drums, and so on. So what is really new is probably in the realms of magnitude and scale however it is pretty easy to argue that things like humans being able to regenerate entire organs, artificial intelligence, cloning yourself, etc. are new for humanity. So if it is real human constants then death and taxes are good examples but not of things that science and tech have no innovative solutions for or impact on. Have to resume later as I am being attacked by some micro ants here, insect attack of humanity another good constant example. Good idea to have 100 % deet in brazil, these are like those tiny crazy raspberry ants that are invading the us only more tiny and invasive, great for electronics…. Lucky they are not really nasty like bedbugs, I would not be shocked if they have them on the int. space station. They can withstand cyanide gas fumigation and more. One thing they can’t take is being isolated for a month without blood in a subzero Wisconsin cabin thank god.
    …. Anyway, what the hey is Buzz Aldrin complaining about, how the market operates as an alternative to the big nation science that is the only reason anyone cares what he thinks about anything? The entire social net is like 0 cost and trivial in comparison to what we blew in pointless manned lunar exploration. The big social net cost is of course all our collective wasted time which would be big news to someone as incoherent as Buzz, the first man to take communion on the moon http://www.ericmetaxas.com/writing/essays/buzz-aldrin-guideposts...

    Reply