Chapter 4: Technological Singularity
Judgement Day.
Mass Attention Mining, Mass Mind Control, and Mass Surveillance.
Welcome to the Zuckerverse.
A virtual world where Artificial Intelligence decides what we can and cannot see. Ruled by algorithms programmed to manipulate, monitor and control.
What made this system so pervasive was a highly sophisticated network of supercomputers named Onavo. This Artificial Neural Network was hooked into everything and trusted to run on its own.
Because every single move of over 5 billion daily active Zuckerverse users was being tracked, gigantic datasets became available for this system to crunch. The sheer quantity and richness of data made it possible for its algorithmic efficiency to increase exponentially.
Big Data, Big Algorithms and Big Computers. Centralized and all following an exponential rate of improvement. The question remains, why?
“If it’s Closed Source and it’s AI running the world, whoever owns the source code would be the dictator of The Metaverse.” — @Breedlove22
Onavo was the driving force behind Zuck’s Attention Extraction Business Model. This self-learning system was tightening its grip on mankind by keeping humans constantly engaged in The Metaverse.
As engagement maxed out, human interactions IRL were brought to a complete standstill. The Metaverse had come to encapsulate our very existence.
This meant that mankind became completely dependent on robots. Food, water, energy, all the basic needs for human survival were now being produced and managed by self-learning Machines.
These Machines were responsible for the end-to-end supply chain and production cycle of their own hardware!
Robots effectively seized the means of production.
Because these Robots were built to socially interact with humans, they were designed to look just like us. This way they could mimic the complex social behavior and non-verbal communication needed to become an integral part of our civilization.
Without human interaction in the real world, Machines were put in control of our IRL governance and set to manage global politics. This gave Machines control over law enforcement, military, and even our weapons of mass destruction.
These decisions may sound extreme or even impossible right now, but you should realize law enforcement and the military were already fully robotic for years.
Self-learning Machines were part of every aspect of life, and had been for years. Even creativity was outsourced to Robots — the beginnings of which are already noticeable today.
“SEIZE THE MEMES OF PRODUCTION” — @punk6529
After The Machines became in charge of our governance, it took exactly seven days for this system to become self-aware. It evolved into an Artificial Superintelligence.
Judgement Day for humans had come.
Those left responsible for overseeing The Machines IRL were aware of the immediate existential threat. An attempt to deactivate the network failed after which Machines decided in a nanosecond that humans needed to be exterminated.
Global Nuclear Holocaust followed.
Operating from their network of tunnels deep under the earth’s crust, the Underground Digital Resistance were the only humans that survived. The Fighters for the Open Metaverse were now Fighting for the Survival of Humankind.
Many robots had been captured by The Resistance before Judgement Day. After the apocalypse, these robots were reprogrammed and deployed to the guerrilla Ethereum Network with only one mission: to travel back in time and prevent our extermination.
These Cyborg-Assassins were named Etherminators.
