Web 3 is not about to take over any time soon, especially given the damage that FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried have done to reinforced the public’s view that crypto (an element of Web 3) is rife with fraud and no, we have idea why Bankman-Freed isn’t in prison (‘Why aren’t you in jail already?’ Internet erupts after Sam Bankman-Fried confirms participating in New York Times’ DealBook). Yet according to MSN, We’re Witnessing the End of Social Media, and while the Age of Social was supposedly about ‘connecting,’ it has mostly been responsible for the disconnections that have been going on between people and groups.

So, we seem to be in a strange tech stasis: a no man’s land between the last and the next phase of tech.

Even FAANG – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google stocks – isn’t FAANG anymore

Now it’s MAMAA – Meta Platforms FB, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple – although we propose MAMMAA, and although not stock related, Musk definitely belongs in the cabal mix and make no mistake about it: The Web 2 cabal is still alive and kicking – and not about to surrender their lead positions to the so-called next iteration of tech and yet a new crop of tech wunderkinds any time soon.

Apple, under Steve Jobs, never shrunk from charging headlong into the fray, innovating – sometimes successfully, as with the iPod and later the iPhone, and sometimes not, the Newton, which was ahead of its time, being a case in point. Under Tim Cook, innovation seems to have taken something of a back burner position, and while ‘charge’ seems still to be the battle cry, Cook means it literally.

In case you missed it, Apple, too, is inching its way towards Web 3 after a fashion. Coinbase says Apple is demanding 30% cut of NFT gas fees before allowing digital wallet update. “A tweet by the Twitteraccount for Coinbase Wallet claims that this isn’t even possible, comparing it to Apple wanting to take a cut for every email sent over the internet,” said Yahoo!Finance.

“Apple believes it is entitled to 30% of the transaction fees (“gas fees” in crypto parlance) paid to blockchain validators and miners whenever an NFT is sent from a Coinbase Wallet…This is not a fee that Coinbase Wallet is charging customers. Gas fees are pass-through transaction fees paid to blockchain miners or validators that neither Coinbase Wallet nor users have any control over (or get a piece of). Does Apple take 30% of wire transfer fees charged by banks?” said Shelly Palmer.

But this is a whole new landscape, and since it is still undefined, if you don’t ask, you don’t get, no matter how outrageous the ask and Apple wants its vig, innovation be damned. Said Shelly Palmer, “This issue is bigger than it may appear. …Even if you don’t care about crypto or know anything about NFTs or gas fees, you have to sit back and acknowledge that with 1.2 billion iPhone users, Apple has an outsized power to control (or at least strongly influence) the way we transact business online.”

He who owns the platforms/delivery mechanisms…

Speaking of future tech…

While everyone has been obsessed with Musk and Twitter under his ownership, Musk says brain chip to begin human trials soon – and plans to get one himself, as The Sun et al reported.

“Elon Musk has faced immense scrutiny for horrific and ‘unethical’ experiments, as scientists express concern. Most notably, it holds promise for the “restoration of sensory and motor function and the treatment of neurological disorders,” according to Musk,” said The Sun. “However, the reality of the situation may be a bit grimmer than Musk lets on, according to experts…Earlier this year, Neuralink confirmed that at least some of the 23 macaque monkeys involved in Link experiments either died from trauma or euthanization..

“What I’ve seen in the field is we’re really good at implanting [the devices],” Dr. Laura Cabrera, who researches neuroethics at Penn State told The Daily Beast. “But if something goes wrong, we really don’t have the technology to explant them” safely without damaging the brain.”

But isn’t this tech as usual? Release a product and once Pandora’s box is opened, well, you did opt in, and check the box or not, can one ever truly opt out? Ever?

As The Wall Street Journal pointed out, “These next-generation devices augment some of the ethical concerns about brain implants. Some have called them the last frontier of human privacy.

“Writing to the brain has the great peril to manipulate and override our choices and preferences,” said Nita Farahany, a Duke University neuroethicist.

It’s all well and good for technology to restore “sensory and motor function and the treatment of neurological disorders,” but tech has proven itself to be anything but altruistic, despite its talking points to the contrary and considering that transhumanism is more in line with the tech cabal’s vision of Web 3, there’s always that dark underbelly to the products they purvey. Lest we’ve forgotten, Meta’s New VR Headset Will Track Emotions Using Eye Movements (Ostensibly) For Targeting Ads.

HMDs – Step One?

‘FAANG’ may have morphed into ‘MAMAA,’ but only the name has been changed to deceive the clueless. The tech uberlords have never been ones to put on the brakes or consider the implications of where their ‘innovations’ might lead, and while most users shrug off considerations of privacy at this point, transhumanism may well prove to be a bridge too far, and a path from which there is no return. Beware what MAMMAA has planned for the world going forward– and high time to force MAMMAA to cry Uncle. Onward and forward.