Lorenzo Taiuti on Zuckerberg, Eco, and the Illusions of Tech

In an article for Artribune Magazine #30, critic and media scholar Lorenzo Taiuti critiques the persistent pursuit of 360-degree 3D vision technology, comparing modern devices like Google Glass to 1950s sci-fi virtual reality. He questions why more work isn't done on overlapping screens or holograms. Taiuti also scrutinizes Mark Zuckerberg's philanthropic pivot, likening it to Bill Gates's image rehabilitation, and warns of the hidden costs of Facebook's global connectivity push. The article mourns Umberto Eco, who passed away recently, as a figure who used computers as encyclopedic databases but grew impatient with techno-fetishists and the internet's potential for misinformation. Eco, Taiuti argues, should have been involved in major digital projects but was overlooked. Finally, Taiuti addresses the vast scale of phone espionage on political and industrial figures, citing Angela Merkel's surveillance since before her prominence, with blame often placed on US intelligence but all parties likely spying on each other. The piece reflects on the blurred lines between friend and foe in the intelligence world.