- Music
- 03 Nov 15
Facebook's Chief Technology Officer talks virtual reality and connecting the world
It is quite an overwhelming feeling when you first come in. You're made to feel so small in a world of technology. Where anywhere else it would be rude to type away on your phone during a conversation, here you seem to be the odd one out when your phone isn't permanently attached to your hand. A bit ironic really, because thanks to the WiFi not really working here, my phone is the only option to give you this report.
In the Centre Stage, Facebook's Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer talks about their 10 year vision: "you guys ready to talk about our future?" Basically, he's the guy who focuses on new ideas and how to bring people together through new, modern technologies.
Talking about connectivity, we seem to take it for granted. The real question according to Facebook, however, is: "why are so many people unconnected?"
This is, of course, where money comes into the picture. It's too expensive to connect everyone from anywhere in the world. But Facebook is working on a solution. Not costless, mind you. Just not as expensive as others might try to do it.
What else? They want to show you exactly what you want to see in your Facebook feed. No more annoying things that you scroll through anyway. How will they do it? Memory network. Remembering what you like which photos you look at, where you're tagged in and so on...
Then it's on to the biggest thing they're working on at the moment – virtual reality. You won't just be friends with that person on the other side of the world, you'll be able to play ping pong together, or Jenga, or have a drink... Although you won't be able to steal his when he's gone to the bathroom.
If Facebook gets his way, we'll all have a part in this future. Connecting everybody is what they're here for. Now go and check your notifications, you probably missed something while you were reading this. Or better still, share it.