During a Q&A with Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, he revealed he thinks the future of the number one social network worldwide is creating a technology that will allow users to communicate via telepathy instead of text or pictures.
Such question and answer sessions with the young CEO are rather regular, and the latest one focused on the near-future impact of virtual reality in social networking. Zuckerberg laid out his hopes of making telepathic communication possible through advanced technology.
Allowing your friends to experience instantly your full and eloquent thoughts – only if you like – sounds like something that belongs more in a sci-fi movie, but Zuckerberg believes we’re closer than we think to having such a technology.
But that is at the end of a longer road that needs to be walked first. He explained that the process will first have users share more video content with their friends, then integrate virtual reality in communication situations by creating more immersive experiences.
After this step comes the possibility for technology that would give us the ability of sharing “full sensory and emotional experience with people whenever we’d like.”
Regarding his vision for Oculus – the company developing in the virtual reality industry – Zuckerberg said that it works toward making it possible for people to experience anything.
The ultimate goal, he said, is surpassing the physical impossibilities of the analog world and creating a medium where people can have new experiences that would otherwise remain only in the realm of wishful thinking.
If your head hurts thinking of the endless possibilities that come with creating such a powerful communication medium, it might be reassuring to hear it’s not just you. But Zuckerberg’s vision isn’t as far-fetched as one might think.
Today, we take photos and videos and share them with friends over the internet in order to let them in on our experiences. “Tomorrow”, we’ll shoot whole 3D scenes and share them on brand-new mediums with our friends as well.
Facebook’s AI research will also increase in precision and accuracy of what you’ll see on your News Feed, learning to show you exactly the posts you’d be interested in seeing. For example, if you post photos of dogs, the algorithm will understand that you would like to see more pictures of dogs from your friends’ posts.
Facebook’s goal is to help you connect with the people who most share your interests. In that sense, it’s no wonder that Facebook’s future is telepathy.
Image Source: NewsBeat Social
Ryan Harris
