Going Meta
Why the tech billionaires want to rise above the rest of us, and why it’s so stupid you have to laugh
While Mark Zuckerberg was sitting down to talk with Joe Rogan last week, I was in a studio recording the audio version of my upcoming book, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires. (Yes, available September 6!)
As the title suggests, the book uses the ludicrous apocalypse bunkers and fortified island retreats of the tech titans as its starting point. But what I realized as I read the text out loud is that it’s really much more concerned with the sort of virtual escape imagined by tech visionaries like Zuckerberg. In fact, the pathetic and ultimately self-destructive, anti-human hallmark of the digital age is the desire not just to survive catastrophe, but to rise above mere mortals and exist on a different plane, altogether.
Sure, an actual apocalypse literalizes this transcendence — at least if we all die and they get to go to Mars. But the more pressing and active form of escape these guys are already practicing looks a lot more like Zuckerberg’s vision of “Meta.” Think about it: Facebook’s subscriber base has peaked along with the public’s tolerance for the platform’s impact on our psychology and society. So what does Zuck do? He goes “meta” on the platform by announcing Meta…
