La torrenziale intervista che Mathias Döpfner ha fatto a Mark Zuckerberg (uscita su Die Welt e tradotta in inglese da Business Insider) merita di essere letta. Tocca moltissimi temi (oggi Repubblica ha scelto di tradurne solo una piccola parte, quella nella quale Zuckerberg – come al solito non espertissimo nei distinguo dialettici – dice che domani tutti noi avremo relazioni con gli altri prevalentemente da dentro i nostri caschi VR)

Ovviamente a Repubblica ci hanno subito fatto un titolo dei loro





Quello che traspare dalla lunga chiacchierata mi pare sia una vasta tendenza del fondatore di Facebook a semplificare molto temi complessi che riguardano il futuro di tutti. Sulle faccende spicciole escono cose divertenti, per esempio che Facebook ha il proprio quartier generale a Dublino (come tutti) ma NON per ragioni fiscali:

Döpfner: The international European headquarters of Facebook is in Ireland. To avoid paying taxes in European markets?

Zuckerberg: No. There are a number of reasons why Dublin is a pretty good place. One is that we are still primarily an English-speaking company so having the headquarters in a place where the majority of people speak English is good. We’ve made significant investments in Ireland with over 1000 employees, a new headquarters and now building a state of the art, sustainable data centre.

Poi Zuckerberg dice che Facebook non è un editore ma una piattaforma distributiva (in realtà sappiamo perfettamente che è entrambe le cose, nda):

Döpfner: Is Facebook a distribution platform or a publisher?

Zuckerberg: Definitely a distribution platform.

Döpfner: Why don’t you want to become a publisher?

Because we’re a technology company. I think the platform is the core of our product that people use to share and consume media, but we ourselves are not a media company. That’s why this partnership strategy of working with others who know better how to create exciting contents is so crucial. We want to remain a technology company.

E che Elon Musk è un isterico:

Döpfner: Can you understand the concerns that business magnate Elon Musk has expressed in that context? He seriously fears that artificial intelligence could one day dominate and take over the human brain, that the machine would be stronger than men. You think that is a valid fear or do you think it’s hysterical?

Zuckerberg: I think it is more hysterical.

A proposito della famosa foto a Barcellona, infine, Zuck dice che – in fondo – la VR è un po’ come essere immersi nella lettura di un buon libro (non potrei dissentire più vigorosamente, nda)

Döpfner: A couple of days ago there was a striking picture of you in Barcelona: You were walking on a stage and no one recognized you because they were all wearing these VR glasses. You were smiling and seemed to enjoy it. Critics are now saying that this example shows that the virtual reality experience is isolating because it is no longer a collective experience. How do you react to these concerns?

Zuckerberg: Nothing could be further from the truth. The exact opposite is the case. What was going inside the headsets was a video of children playing soccer in some faraway place. You could look around and you could see the kids playing soccer around you and it was a shared experience with everyone in that place that would have been impossible experience otherwise. It would have kind of been like going to a movie but a much more personal thing where you are all actually in it.

I think people tend to be worried about every new technology that comes along. Critics worry that if we spend time paying attention to that new kind of media or technology instead of talking to each other that that is somehow isolating. But humans are fundamentally social. So I think in reality, if a technology doesn’t actually help us socially understand each other better, it isn’t going to catch on and succeed.

You could probably go all the way back to the first books. I bet people said ‘why should you read when you could talk to other people?’ The point of reading is that you get to deeply immerse yourself in a person’s perspective. Right? Same thing with newspapers or phones or TVs. Soon it will be VR, I bet.