“I Got Really Into Surfing Recently”

Zuck cops a lot of flack. Why? There’s the hard questions around his company Meta and whether its sum impact is beneficial or not, what content lives on its platform, censorship, free speech, fake news, political and social fragmentation, privacy, mental health, bullying etc… But on another more personal level, Zuck irks. 

Before it became Meta, Facebook was originally called Fashmash. In 2003, from his frat dorm, Zuck began stripping photos from university servers and uploading photos of women, side-by-side, asking users to rate which was more attractive. After a few drinks on a rainy Tuesday, he got an even better idea. “Some of these people have pretty horrendous facebook pics. So I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive,” wrote a 19-year-old Zuck on his blog. Needless to say the women who’s mugs were being compared to bush pigs were not too stoked. 

Two decades later, Zuck’s still irking. 

The following is an interview with MIT scientist and podcaster, Lex Fridman. Zuck’s asked the hard questions, responds to criticisms and even passes a reCAPTURE test, certifying he is at least the world’s most advanced AI, or possibly human. Listen to the head of Meta describe his passion for foiling and surfing, and how Meta is aiming to create digital realities more preferable to reality via haptic gloves, headsets and photo-realistic avatars.

Will brains in vats be getting coned on the couch?