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*Mark Zuckerberg has done more harm to the human race than anyone his age. * | | | |
< < | Mark Zuckerberg controls the human race to a certain degree. He knows what we think, how we feel and what we like. Every click on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp? feeds into the endless sea of data he has already collected from us. Every day, his "gift" of convenience lures us into giving him more information about ourselves. As he continues to collect our data, he continues to learn about our pasts, presents, and futures. He continuously strengthens his understanding of how our thoughts and beliefs have evolved over time and how they will continue to evolve."But I miss my family, they are so far away". "I want to know what my friends are up to"." I want my friends to know what I am up to"." I want to FIT IN". So, we give more at the cheap cost of convenience, knowing who we are giving to, knowing who we are empowering. Yesterday, I texted my mom on WhatsApp? and told her about my day. I also scrolled through Instagram reels - I skipped the "top 5 best burgers in New York videos"; on my feed but spent a few minutes watching comedies about Trump. Then I replied to my friend's post of him at the beach: "Lucky you, wish I was there too". Zuckerberg knows. He knows that I speak regularly to my mom, that I prefer laughing at Trump rather than finding burger places. He also knows that I like the beach. But that's only the surface, Zuckerberg knows more about me than I know about me. Zuckerberg controls the human race because he intimately knows (almost) every individual's individuality. Zuckerberg is powerful because he can read minds. Zuckerberg is powerful because he is all-knowing.
Such power has harmed the human race by stripping it of its very humanity. What makes our human race human is its composition of individuals, who regardless of being physically controlled, have always found refuge in their own minds. No man, even the most powerful rulers could have full access to the continuous flow of someone’s thoughts. Gandhi was aware of this truth when he stated, "You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind". He knew, that despite being physically controlled, he could NEVER be stripped of his exclusive access to his self. Several have tried to strip people of their humanity in the past - they have indoctrinated people from the youngest age, censored speech, and used propaganda. While such measures have influenced how people think, shaping their convictions and beliefs, they have been limited in effect. They have failed to capture the complexity of every individual that was targeted - still even the most powerful could not have access to people's deepest secrets, their insecurities, their ambitions, or their subconscious. Hence, despite the oppressors and power-hungry tyrants throughout history, the human race has continuously enriched itself with the birth of every individual: new ideas, new opinions, new perspectives, and new stories, all added to the human race's incorruptible humanity.
But Zuck. Zuck has done what many vicious tyrants before him have failed to do, even with the most sophisticated torture methods. Users of his products (and later products that learned from his) can no longer seek refuge in their own minds. Their thoughts no longer belong exclusively to them but are appropriated by a superstructure (a.k.a ZUCK) that becomes perpetually more omniscient at the cheap cost of everybody's individualities.
Speaking of cheap, 3.82 dollars was how much the average Facebook user was worth to Zuckerberg in 2016 (Funk). Really? From individuals with rich, perpetually flowing thoughts, to commodities? Worth 3.82 dollars? That's what I am to you, Zuck? Maybe my true worth to you is the information I constantly provide. But still, I am just one of your billions of subjects. You don't actually care about me, you only care about my contribution to the aggregate, to the super machine you have built - the source of your power. So now, my supposedly unquantifiable individuality is simply disposable to you, it is just a millilitre of fuel to your machine of power. Even better, it increases your company's profits by 3.82 dollars a year!
Maybe this is all a means to an end. You are outweighing the harm you cause us with good right? You are making our life easier right? You are contributing to the "exoskeletal nervous system that ties the entire species together"(Moglen) right? No. All you care about is control. All you care about is power. All you care about is YOU. You knew you were, almost exclusively, appropriating something that WE were meant to control. You knew, from the beginning that you were creating a "dark machine by design" (Moglen) that would feed off our progress for your benefit. The harm you caused to the human race was not accidental. It was an evil manifestation of your greed and lust for power. Even today, you continue to strengthen your hegemony by acquiring, acquiring, and acquiring. You have left us very few avenues to truly escape your control of our minds.
So, did such harm go further than that of anyone Zuckerberg's age? Very few people, let alone those Zuck's age, could be said to have committed comparable harm to the human race. Steve Jobs, the king of the undead now dead, created the "densest collection of sensors ever assembled"; - the Spyphone. His creation also allowed him, and those who succeeded him, to intimately track our behaviour and tap into each individual's flow of thoughts. He did it at 51. Musk, who is currently trying to literally plant a chip in people's brains is also up there. But he started that project at 45. But Zuck. He created Facebook at 19.
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