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> but couldn't while he was still working for Meta... He still took the money, though. That was all I could think about while I was reading that paragraph.

bombcar 4y ago
Pay me enough money and I'll work very hard trying to disprove the laws of thermodynamics. I'll tell you it can't be done, of course, but if you insist I'll work hard at trying to do it.
- kelnos 4y ago
  Sure, but you trying to do that won't hurt anyone (well, aside from the bank account of the person paying you, but that's on them). Building a dystopian VR-based social network hurts a lot more people. I would hope we have better ethics than to work on things that harm others for truckloads of money. Then again, a lot of people still work for Meta (and Twitter, and...), so I guess ethics is pretty lacking.
  - fallingknife 4y ago
    How, exactly, does building a VR social network harm anyone?
    - dohdhdaa 4y ago
    - actionfromafar 4y ago
      You change the environment where people to some extent live their lives. Stripmalls never hurt anyone either by that token.
      - fallingknife 4y ago
        People change the environment themselves by choosing that over the alternative. If you don't like the thing that other people chose that's a fair opinion to have, but it's hard to argue that harm was caused by it.
        actionfromafar 4y ago
        That's incredibly reductive.
    - Eisenstein 4y ago
      I would argue that trying to force VR on consumers by over-promising it before it has a 'killer-app' is harmful to VR as a technology, and I think that VR is a potentially very important technology. However I can't argue against the Zuck giving Carmack 20 billion dollars to build awesome and affordable toys that I love using, especially when it has the potential to scare off his stockholders and make him even more of a laughing stock. I say it is a wash.
    - midoridensha 4y ago
      It only harms people if people choose it. Just look at all the harm caused by the game SecondLife. Oh wait, it hasn't really caused much, if any, because it's not exactly popular. I predict their VR social network will be even less popular.

bombcar 4y ago

Pay me enough money and I'll work very hard trying to disprove the laws of thermodynamics. I'll tell you it can't be done, of course, but if you insist I'll work hard at trying to do it.

kelnos 4y ago
Sure, but you trying to do that won't hurt anyone (well, aside from the bank account of the person paying you, but that's on them). Building a dystopian VR-based social network hurts a lot more people. I would hope we have better ethics than to work on things that harm others for truckloads of money. Then again, a lot of people still work for Meta (and Twitter, and...), so I guess ethics is pretty lacking.
- fallingknife 4y ago
  How, exactly, does building a VR social network harm anyone?
  - dohdhdaa 4y ago
  - actionfromafar 4y ago
    You change the environment where people to some extent live their lives. Stripmalls never hurt anyone either by that token.
    - fallingknife 4y ago
      People change the environment themselves by choosing that over the alternative. If you don't like the thing that other people chose that's a fair opinion to have, but it's hard to argue that harm was caused by it.
      - actionfromafar 4y ago
        That's incredibly reductive.
  - Eisenstein 4y ago
    I would argue that trying to force VR on consumers by over-promising it before it has a 'killer-app' is harmful to VR as a technology, and I think that VR is a potentially very important technology. However I can't argue against the Zuck giving Carmack 20 billion dollars to build awesome and affordable toys that I love using, especially when it has the potential to scare off his stockholders and make him even more of a laughing stock. I say it is a wash.
  - midoridensha 4y ago
    It only harms people if people choose it. Just look at all the harm caused by the game SecondLife. Oh wait, it hasn't really caused much, if any, because it's not exactly popular. I predict their VR social network will be even less popular.