Today’s links Zuck’s gravity-defying metaverse money-pit: $46.5 billion incinerated and he’s richer than ever. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Zuck’s gravity-defying metaverse money-pit (permalink) Think of everything that makes you miserable as being caught between two opposing, irresistible, irrefutable truths: “Anything that can’t go on forever eventually stops” (Stein’s Law) “Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent” (Keynes) Both of these are true, even though they seemingly contradict one another, and no one embodies that contradiction more perfectly than Mark Zuckerberg. Take the metaverse. Zuck’s “pivot” to a virtual world he ripped off from a quarter-century old cyberpunk novel (reminder: cyberpunk is a warning, not a suggestion) was born of desperation. Zuck fancies himself an avatar of the Emperor Augustus (that’s why he has that haircut) (no, really). The emperors of antiquity are infamous for getting all weepy when they run out of lands to conquer. But the lachrymosity of emperors has little causal relationship to the anxieties of tech monopolists! Alexander weeps because he just loves a good conquest and when he finishes conquering the world, he’s terminally bored. That’s not Zuck’s problem at all. When Zuck attains monopoly status, his company develops an autoimmune disorder, as his vicious princelings run out of enemies to destroy and begin to knife one another. Any monopoly faces these destructive microincentives, but tech is exceptional here because tech has…Pluralistic: Zuck's gravity-defying metaverse money-pit (30 Oct 2023)