Pet a Meta

Reality or virtual reality or alternative reality?

Goosebumps (at least I thought they were) overtook the back of my neck when I read that Mark Zuckerberg had renamed his company Facebook to MetaPlatforms. Because he is going to create a MetaUniverse, he said.

All I could envision was more of his culture-crashing, deceitful and valueless platform where some scroll endlessly throughout a day, looking for friends or now, putting on a pair of white goggles and wandering around the house instead of say, reading the classics or having a meaningful conversation with those with whom we live.

Mark, that is JUST what we need now, along with virtual games, glasses, and playthings that have nothing to do with reality on earth. Granted, reality on earth is not for the faint-hearted but making a difference in a real world is much different from an alternative one.

Today, Apple announced that it is very excited, almost orgasmic, over the money to be made on its iPhones that will usher in VR (virtual reality) and AR (alternative reality).

Is anyone taking a step back at these announcements?

I am happy to report here and you are the first to read that Sugar Pi is concerned about reality vs. appearance.

When I taught honors literature at the high school level, the term “reality vs. appearance” was one of my favorite essay topics. Were the lavish parties Gatsby was throwing on West Egg reality? Or were they just a fake appearance? It’s important to be able to know the difference.

You get the point.

This morning on our walk throughout the Arizona subdivision where we sometimes winter, she saw a Chow-Chow in the front yard and became frenzied, leaping up like a circus dog and barking like a guard dog. She made such a racket that people came out of their houses.

I told her that dog across the street was a statue. Not real. Didn’t faze her. Barking continued to a fevered pitch.

We needed to walk closer to SEE that it was a lawn ornament that some might argue was unattractive.

And indeed, to the human eye, it was not alive.

But to a young pup, it was.

Think of all the young pups we have in our human population today.

The Mark Zuckerbergs and Tim Cooks out there do not care about the mental health of all of those pups—they only really care about monetizing VR and AR.