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Zuckerberg could run Facebook while serving in government forever
- pmiller2 10y agoWhy does this sound like the plot to a dystopian sci fi novel? Facebook's interests aren't anything close to my interests.
- richardwhiuk 10y agoAnd Trump's do? We are already in a dystopian sci fi novel.
- zitterbewegung 10y agoWe have been living in a dystopian sci-fi novel since 2001.
- brandonmenc 10y agoWe have been living in a dystopian sci-fi novel since 1945.
- bogomipz 10y agoYes but I think the velocity of Dystopianism since 2001 might be much greater than anything experienced before then.
- fsloth 10y agoThe massive stockpiling of nuclear weapons that began is kind of on league of it's own. The western electorate has been taken on a ride since national suffrage became a thing (before that they had very little power thus no rides were necessary - ditto for non-democratic states)
- bogomipz 10y agoPlease reread what wrote. I am not stating that it didn't exist much earlier. I was simply saying that the velocity of it has seemed to increase since 2001.
- fsloth 10y agoYep. 1. Cities destroyed by atomic weapons 2. Rockets 3. Computers 4. A dystopian one party nation state murdering millions of it's own (murdering en masse is nothing new but usually there was some excuse - soviet system brought state instituted terror to a whole new levem).
- platz 10y agoWe have been living in a dystopian sci-fi novel since 33 AD. Or, if you prefer, 66 million years ago.
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago> usually there was some excuse - soviet system brought state instituted terror to a whole new levem [sic] Perhaps on an absolute basis, the Soviets were the worst, but on a relative-to-population basis history is littered with meaningless massacre.
- fsloth 10y agoI agree, yet, I don't think there is anything intellectually dishonest in counting human suffering in absolute measures. Yes, we can identify historical patterns, but individual humans are not just playing out a manifestation of social dynamics, they are living their life. The heart and mind are equal in gauging the world - just different aspects of it.
- rokosbasilisk 10y agoPrism and edward snowden sealed that for me a while back.
- pmiller2 10y agoYep. I have a Yahoo! email. The NSA has already read all my personal correspondence. Edit: I suppose "read" is a bit of a strong word. How about "processed," or "scanned"? [0] --- [0]:http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-nsa-exclusive-idUSKCN1241YT http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-nsa-exclusive-idUSKC...
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- imgabe 10y agoThen don't vote for Zuckerberg? Technically, if he were to be a representative or other elected government official, he would be obligated to uphold the interests of his constituents, not the company he owns, just like any other representative. Granted, it might be a concern that he would use his position to help his company, which is why officials usually have to put their assets in a blind trust. He would still have to get elected first, though. So if you're basically expecting that he's going to be corrupt, then don't vote for him and encourage others not to.
- aaron-lebo 10y agoThat's much easier said than done. At the end of the day, Facebook almost reaches 2 billion people. Good luck beating that and a net worth of $50 billion.
- edblarney 10y ago"Technically, if he were to be a representative or other elected government official, he would be obligated to uphold the interests of his constituents, not the company he owns, just like any other representative." "Technically" it would be a massive conflict of interest and probably illegal. Having someone own/control/influence a major chunk of the media establishment and also have public responsibility is a pretty serious problem. 5th estate needs to be separate from the others :)
- imgabe 10y ago
- rayiner 10y agoThe problem with dystopian sci-fi novels is that their plots are usually dependent on social dynamics that don't capture the full range of human behavior. For example, you don't read many sci-fi novels that have a character like John D. Rockafeller (who used his wealth and power to stand up to Prohibition). It's worth keeping in mind that some of America's founding fathers were also among the wealthiest people in the country (e.g. John Hancock).
- Retric 10y agoUS population in 1776 was 1% of what it is now. So, the 'wealthy' was a significantly less elite group. Basically, the top 1,000 people back then where the equivalent of the top 100,000 people now, not the top 1,000.
- junto 10y agoYou should read "The Circle" by Dave Eggers.
- wahsd 10y agoConsidering how Facebook grew on the back of several fraudulent scheme to inflate their numbers in many different ways at different stages, I can't think of a worse entity to spawn a presidential candidate … maybe Plantir but they are already heavily involved in the game without the public knowing it, let alone what and how.
- kakwa_ 10y agoI could not agree more. I found the near deification of Internet/Tech entrepreneurs, like Musk, Zuckerberg and others deeply annoying at best. Selling the idea they could be the providential leaders we "need", and that they could solve every single issue of our (quite complex) societies, is just disturbing... Not to mention the latent conflicts of interest which can occur...
- ape4 10y agoJust login to Facebook with your SSN to check your IRS and other government services...
- rokosbasilisk 10y agoPolitics and tech mixing sounds bad for global shared tech. Seems like tech or internet balkanization is coming fast.
- dj-wonk 10y agoWhy do you say "balkanization" and what do you mean by it? Why might it be bad? Why might it be good? There are so many factors. For one, I'd rather have someone in government who understands technology. So many parts of government are lacking in basic technical capability. On the other hand, I find Facebook's awareness of the social fabric to be somewhere between inchoate (that's charitable) and a convenient illusion that is fundamentally mostly marketing-driven. (I don't fault a company for being market-driven; however, such incentives are not structured to properly serve people and communities). But I don't know too much about Facebook's social design as compared to Zuck's goals for possibly serving in government or where he would like Facebook to go.
- rokosbasilisk 10y agoThis article explains it well. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/10/internet_balkanization_may_be_a_side_effect_of_the_snowden_surveillance.html http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/1... Tech companies controlled directly by us politicians will probably make this existing backlash worse.
- bogomipz 10y ago>"Seems like tech or internet balkanization is coming fast." I don't think you concerns about balkanization are unfounded by I'm curious why you have that concern in the context of this specific story. Can you elaborate?
- rokosbasilisk 10y agohttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/08/mark-zuckerberg-political-office-facebook-control https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/08/mark-zuck... Basically he wants to retain control of facebook while running for office, I cant imagine this go over well with certain other countries. Especially ones sensitive to nsa leaks, it would just have incredibly poor optics, and just increase the balkanization occuring already.
- redthrowaway 10y agoI must have missed something; why are people discussing Zuck serving in government?
- stingrae 10y agoThere is speculation based on how he structured facebook's stock as well as his new years resolution, to travel all over the US and talk to people about the issues they care about. It is the sort of step that someone would make before running for political office.
- crazpach 10y agoAnd don't forget the announcement where he said he's no longer an atheist and religion is important.
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- ithinkinstereo 10y agoRecent announcements and actions by Zuck suggest that he's going to run for office one day. 1) Reveals he is no longer an atheist (http://nypost.com/2017/01/02/mark-zuckerberg-reveals-hes-no-longer-an-atheist/ http://nypost.com/2017/01/02/mark-zuckerberg-reveals-hes-no-...) 2) 2017 New Years goal to meet people in every 50 state (http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-personal-goal-for-2017-meet-people-in-every-us-state-2017-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-personal-goal...) etc.
- aaron-lebo 10y ago“No. I was raised Jewish and then I went through a period where I questioned things, but now I believe religion is very important,” he wrote.
- jjawssd 10y ago
- satysin 10y agoI was going to post asking what experience Mark has in government but then I remembered the American population just voted to elect a reality TV 'star' and rich-from-daddies-money mediocre businessman as President. So yeah I guess Mark is highly qualified in that he has several times Trump's net worth.
- CptJamesCook 10y agoAnother way to describe Trump is that he ran a business that created more value than the S&P 500 (the top 500 businesses on US stock exchanges) over a 30 year period, created a world famous brand associated with quality and luxury, created a tv show that dominated ratings for a decade, and crushed two political dynasties that have held power for almost 40 years.
- hyperpape 10y ago"a business that created more value than the S&P 500 (the top 500 businesses on US stock exchanges) over a 30 year period" What's this based on?
- CptJamesCook 10y agohttps://dqydj.com/donald-trump-beat-sp-500-index-funds/ https://dqydj.com/donald-trump-beat-sp-500-index-funds/ Admittedly questionable source, but I've seen it elsewhere and the approximation seems fair.
- hyperpape 10y agoThere's probably a clearer way to phrase that point. I initially thought you were saying that Donald Trump made more money than the entire S&P 500!
- CptJamesCook 10y agohaha. I reread my post and it was a bit gibberishy. Ooops.
- edblarney 10y agoWould be a massive conflict of interest. Zuck is also setting himself up for President, which is a little egoist. That said, anyone thinking that is on some level ...
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- hyperpape 10y agoAs someone who shares a lot more political opinions with Zuckerberg than Trump, having the man who controls Facebook holding political office has just as much potential for corruption as Trump does, and is almost as scary. Politicians have a lot of levers to shape media coverage without owning one of the largest sources of information in the modern world.
- Terr_ 10y agoI searched for "blind trust" and didn't see it. Is there some legal quirk I'm missing here where Zuckerberg gets a pass on conflicts of interest, or is it part of the general lack of ethics the incoming Administration seems to be planning?
- kelvin0 10y agoFacebook.gov : The new platform to tie in all branches of the government: Healthcare, DMV, Criminal Records, Credit ... Bonus if the API endpoints for each Service uses GraphQL.
- moolcool 10y agoOh please no
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- visakanv 10y agoSome fun facts: Zuck's favorite book(s) growing up was the Ender's Game series [1]. He learned Mandarin and spoke to Chinese audiences [2]. As such, I don't think he's setting himself up to be POTUS, that seems too small for him. (One of Zuck's role models is Bill Gates, and Bill clearly believes that folks like himself can do more for the world outside of Government than inside it.) IMO, Mark's setting himself up to be Hegemon of Earth: http://enderverse.wikia.com/wiki/Hegemony http://enderverse.wikia.com/wiki/Hegemony [1] http://favobooks.com/enterpreneurs/90-zuckerberg.html http://favobooks.com/enterpreneurs/90-zuckerberg.html [2] https://qz.com/532834/mark-zuckerbergs-20-minute-speech-in-clumsy-mandarin-is-his-latest-attempt-to-woo-china/ https://qz.com/532834/mark-zuckerbergs-20-minute-speech-in-c...
- jackcosgrove 10y agoI'm not sure why people are saying Zuckerberg would be better than a regular politician. His public statements have been pretty vacuous, which probably means he is trying to obscure his real positions like any other politician. I'll reserve final judgement on his competence for office until he starts being more concrete, or if someone can point me to some position papers. But for now color me suspicious. The prospect of a global surveillance apparatus is chilling though, and Zuckerberg already has one of those - albeit with voluntary participation. Digital privacy is a major fault line in emerging politics, and Zuckerberg is one of my bete noires in this area.
- beebeebush 10y agoI would not like to see him any role in politics, thanks. Mark have tendency to broke privacy laws and use your privacy data against you, when ever they have financial benefit in it. Not very "people's person" qualities??
- gerby 10y agoMark should run for President. If either Him or Peter were running, I'd vote for either of them. It'd be very good for innovation, people wouldn't suffocate under Business Regulation, and the US would have Utopian policies (I imagine). If Peter or Mark decide to become President, they should compete with Justin Trudeau, to see who can be more Socially Liberal.
- Jordrok 10y ago"They 'trust me' ... dumb fucks."
- kkhire 10y agoahhaahah exactly the quote I was thinking of. Zuck is hilarious. ZUCK 2020