Facebook Renames to Meta • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Renames to Meta

#931

Post by jtsiskin » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 8:36 AM UTC

treelovinhippie wrote: post #775

danso wrote: post #139

I was curious what meta.com looked like before FB took control of the domain. Recent snapshots aren't loading for me, but post-2015 it looks like it was taken over by an AI company — the page titles include "Meta — Science Discovered" [0] and "Meta — AI for Science". Prior to that, since around 2012 it was an unused Wordpress site [1] that redirected to meta.compgu.com (which is now "tekman.cc", a consulting firm or…

Zuck's non-profit acquired the company back in 2017 and as of a few hours ago they conveniently killed it. Imagine acquiring a company via your non-profit purely to grab the name and domain names for your for-profit. Announcement: https://cziscience.medium.com/meta-transition-5f66b1fae475

Meta owned meta.com, the m+infinity logo trademark (https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=5548122&caseSearchType=US...), the Meta trademark (https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86852664&caseSearchType=U...).

These trademarks covered: “promoting the goods and services of others via computer and communication networks using targeted and non-targeted methods; operating on-line marketplaces for sellers of goods and/or services … providing advertising space via the global computer network … creating on-line virtual communities … hosting electronic facilities for others for organizing and conducting meetings, events and interactive discussions via communication networks”

So pretty likely to conflict with Facebook.

However, they transferred all of these to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in May: https://assignments.uspto.gov/assignments/assignment-tm-7299..., and as you mentioned, are now shutting down. It’s not a great look. I would feel pretty bad if I had devoted years of my life to building meta.org to now see how it was used

Re: Facebook Renames to Meta

#932

Post by Kinrany » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 8:37 AM UTC

0x4d464d48 wrote: post #494

Kinrany wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sounds like a Yudkowskyists wet dream to me. How so? Searching for "metaverse" on LW yields 9 results, most of them are irrelevant.

I'm thinking more about how this seems like a template for people to integrate their personal lives into an actual simulation and give a justification for a 'friendly AI' to determine what's best for us. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/k3823vuarnmL5Pqin/quantum-no... https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/coherent-extrapolated-volition

I don't quite see the connection. Metaverse is a virtual world, not a simulated world: the people are made of real atoms, not bits.

Re: Facebook Renames to Meta

#933

Post by kieckerjan » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 8:48 AM UTC

Wonder what Stepenson thinks of this.

Note to self: if you ever write a scifi-novel, trademark the names of all flashy technologies imagined in it so that some Evil Corp does not claim them to brush up their coolness factor.

Re: Facebook Renames to Meta

#934

Post by joshxyz » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 8:49 AM UTC

Aint this no different from google's alphabet?

Re: Facebook Renames to Meta

#935

Post by pvelagal » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 8:52 AM UTC

Meta’s goal seems to become a “3D-Internet” browser/platform. But unless the concept of a “3D-Internet” is widely adopted and the related standards/technologies are built/adopted by the major players it might be gargantuan task for one company to pull this off. IMHO the Vision is great and inevitable.. but needs Industry support.

Re: Facebook Renames to Meta

#936

Post by jonashendel » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 8:57 AM UTC

now its maang companies, not faang

Re: Facebook Renames to Meta

#937

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 9:02 AM UTC

micromacrofoot wrote: post #455

daviding wrote: post #36

If there is going to be a metaverse, I'm not sure I want Facebook to own it. It's like a bad sci-fi pulp story. Given their investment and research, I wonder if they should open it all up (even if contradictory to short-term gains in ad revenue) so it has a chance to grow? Federate it a bit more than they are comfortable with, to at least give it a chance. I could see this flubbing out hard otherwise. I'm personally…

If what they're doing now is any indication, I don't think they'll succeed with it anyway. They've got almost zero credibility with anyone under 30. Their existing prototypes are outrageously embarrassing. I'm the kind of person that has a hard time watching The Office because I feel second-hand embarrassment, and I can barely make it a minute in to any of their VR demos. They're so uncanny, awkward, and embarrassing…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Renames to Meta

#938

Post by jtsiskin » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 9:02 AM UTC

modeless wrote: post #250

danso wrote: post #139

I was curious what meta.com looked like before FB took control of the domain. Recent snapshots aren't loading for me, but post-2015 it looks like it was taken over by an AI company — the page titles include "Meta — Science Discovered" [0] and "Meta — AI for Science". Prior to that, since around 2012 it was an unused Wordpress site [1] that redirected to meta.compgu.com (which is now "tekman.cc", a consulting firm or…

There was an actual AR glasses company named Meta before this. They failed a few years ago. I guess Facebook must have bought the trademark from them. But they never owned meta.com I guess. Their current site is https://www.metavision.com/

The trademark was only for “Meta” in this stylized font: https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86907005&caseType=SERIAL_...

Re: Facebook Renames to Meta

#939

Post by amelius » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 9:02 AM UTC

So the Meta key on my keyboard is now a Facebook key, sort of?

Re: Facebook Renames to Meta

#940

Post by bobmichael » Fri, Oct 29, 2021, 9:10 AM UTC

newby wrote: post #396

silisili wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a chance. I've been wrong about a lot of things tech, probably even most things, but this isn't something I think most people want. Metaverses have always been niche. Most people don't like things attached to their head. Remember 3D TVs? But, perhaps you and they are right. For the first time in my life, I honestly feel like 'if this is the future, I want no part in it.' Please don't take this as like, suicidal o…

> I honestly feel like 'if this is the future, I want no part in it.' I feel like that about ever larger part of the whole tech world. I am torn - I can still muster a lot of techno-optimism when I think for example about possible benefits of advanced AIs for humanity. But than I imagine the world where the most advanced AIs are controlled by corporations like Google and Facebook... I have a bad feeling about this. I…

Have you heard of solarpunk? It's a movement that arose out of a desire to balance techno-optimism with recognition of the dire need for technology that is more Earth- and human-friendly.

You might resonate with the manifesto: https://www.re-des.org/a-solarpunk-manifesto/