Chapter 1105 We Don“t Care
The Shanghai International Convention and Exhibition Center.
This was where the Phantom virtual reality system product launch was held.
This wasn’t Elon Musk’s first rodeo.
He stood in the venue lobby with his invitation letter in his hand. He suddenly noticed an acquaintance.
This was none other than Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook.
A while ago, Facebook liquidated its subsidiary company Oculus, laying off thousands of employees. This caused quite a lot of discussion on the Internet.
He wasn’t surprised to see Elon here at all.
These two were likely to become compet.i.tors with one another.
“I didn’t expect to see you here.” Elon reached out his hand and said, “This is a lucky day.”
After Mark Zuckerberg shook Elon’s hand, he spoke.
“Same here, nice to see you.”
Elon: “It looks like you’re not in a good mood.”
Mark said, “Aren’t you the same?”
People in Los Angeles had already begun protesting against the Phantom system. Even though Mark Zuckerberg wanted to cooperate with Star Sky Technology, he had to tread carefully.
He didn’t expect Star Sky Technology to not only ignore the recent public controversies but host a product launch instead.
This really surprised him.
Hosting a launch conference meant they would undoubtedly be at the center of public attention.
The reporters would definitely not let them off the hook easily.
At least not the foreign reporters.
“Haha, I’m doing fine,” Elon smiled and said. “Even though I’m interested in virtual reality technology, it’s only a hobby. Maybe virtual reality is important for Facebook, but it doesn’t affect Tesla and s.p.a.ce-X.”
This was true.
For Elon Musk, this technology was only a profit-generating machine. He wasn’t as desperate as Zuckerberg in getting his hands on the technology.
Mark looked at Elon’s gloating face and didn’t say anything. He turned around and walked toward the venue.
Elon didn’t say anything. He shrugged and also walked toward the venue.
The product launch was about to begin.
One thing he had in common with Zuckerberg was that they both wanted to know what Star Sky Technology had to say…
…
The crowd gathered at the press conference.
Among the attendees were CEOs of well-known technology companies, big names from academia, or media journalists.
Chen Yushan, CEO of Star Sky Technology, walked on to the stage and announced the beginning of the product launch.
Surprisingly, this female CEO did not seem to care about the recent controversies on the Internet. Rather, she focused on the Phantom system.
There was going to be a content grading system for the virtual reality network, as well as a new experimental plan.
According to the female CEO, Star Sky Technology would establish a virtual reality network grading system, that determined the signals that the user could receive from the neural demodulator, based on the user’s age and choosing.
Basically, users under the age of 18 would not be able to receive inappropriate content. Users above the age of 18, subject to local laws and regulations, could enable inappropriate content.
On the other hand, in order to improve the Phantom system machine learning algorithm and better ident.i.ty-appropriate content, Star Sky Technology had announced the launch of their “Master G.o.d” plan. They were going to recruit 5-20 people from all over the world. They were going to be testers that helped the Phantom System with algorithmic deep learning.
Chen Yushan did not disclose the specific experiment plan.
After all, that wasn’t the main point of the conference.
After she briefly explained the situation, she cleared her throat and spoke to the audience.
“Moreover, I understand there have been some false rumors circulating online, as well as concerns from the public.
“From a scientific perspective, virtual reality is absolutely a safe technology. It is like having a second pair of eyes, it’s only a tool for us to receive external signals, it cannot replace our thoughts.
“Also, everyone has the freedom to choose to adopt this technology. As an ethical company, we serve the future of humanity, providing more choices to the people.
“The user has the right to make the final decision.
“That is our response to the false rumors about the virtual reality network. Next, let’s talk about the focus of this conference…”
Zuckerberg was sitting in the crowd. He looked at the CEO of Star Sky Technology and frowned.
This wasn’t an unusual response to public rumors.
It answered the public’s questions and provided a solution.
But is the public going to trust the technology? Will this convince other companies to accept the new reality?
It seems like I have underestimated this technology…
Honestly, he was quite pessimistic about the way Star Sky Technology handled the negative publicity.
However, the CEO on stage didn’t seem to care at all. She continued to speak, “This is our company’s development strategy.
“We will divide our global business into eight regions and establish supercomputing centers in each region, which provide virtual reality network computing services. We will expand the virtual reality network bandwidth based on the size of the supercomputing centers in each region.
“The first location of the supercomputing center has been selected to be at Jinling, China. It will provide virtual reality network computing power for East Asia.
“As for other regions, we welcome high-tech companies to join us to promote the globalization of the virtual reality network.
“Of course, if you guys are not interested, we understand.
“After all, the future doesn’t serve anyone, only a portion of people. We understand if our western friends decide to go against their own free trade policies.”
There was a commotion in the audience.
What is that supposed to mean?
Star Sky Technology does not care about the markets outside of East Asia.
They’re telling the west that they don’t care?
It seems like they’re too c.o.c.ky about their technology!
The western reporters carrying cameras were stunned.
“This is… their official response? What are they doing?”
“Are they crazy?”
The entrepreneurs in the venue were also stunned.
However, they were shocked by something else.
Elon stared at the stage, his eyes sparkled with excitement.
Even though, like Zuckerberg, he wasn’t fond of the way Star Sky Technology responded to the public rumors, this was amazing news for the businessmen in the virtual reality field.
Like most Silicon Valley CEOs had speculated, Star Sky Technology did not plan on competing with the downstream industrial chain. They planned on foregoing their customer-facing business and only serve as a cloud computing provider for other companies.
This meant that if the virtual reality network came to America, companies in the Phantom ecosystem would be able to take a piece of the pie.
Maybe even a big piece.
“They are crazy…”
Zuckerberg’s eyes flashed with excitement.
He finally understood what the real trump card of Star Sky Technology was.
Even though he didn’t want to admit this, the Phantom system had no compet.i.tion, at least in the short term. Regardless of whether or not other companies were willing to accept this reality, the Phantom system couldn’t be replaced.
It was easy to stop this monopoly; they just had to ban this technology from their countries.
However, once the virtual reality network matured, American companies would want to enter this market…
Regardless, Facebook shouldn’t miss this opportunity to revolutionize the Internet.
Mark Zuckerberg made up his mind. He had to get a chance to speak with Star Sky Technology after the conference.
…
After the Star Sky Technology conference, high tech companies went crazy, so did the western media outlets.
The companies were going crazy because of the announcement that Star Sky Technology was looking to find overseas partners, while the media was crazy because…
They were being ignored.
That’s right.
Completely ignored.
Whether it was the criticism from well-known psychologists on the CNN show or anti-virtual reality protests on the streets of New York, Star Sky Technology seemed impervious to everything.
After the launch, Andrew, a well-known CNN reporter, expressed his resentment at Star Sky Technology’s response, or rather, their lack of response. He furiously spoke into the camera.
“I have never seen such an arrogant company. They don’t care about the people at all! All they care about is selling their fancy technology. From now on, I will boycott Star Sky Technology! I hope everyone will join me and defeat this evil company!”
Andrew spoke in a pa.s.sionate tone.
However, ideas were beautiful, but reality was often cruel.
Star Sky Technology was not only a production company, but it was also an intellectual property company.
Obviously, it was easy to boycott Star Sky Technology…
They just had to remove the lithium-sulfur batteries from their phones and electric vehicles, refuse to use wireless charging stations, boycott the carbon-based chips made by American semiconductor companies, protest against the fusion power station in California, which used superconducting materials, and refuse to use clean nuclear energy…
That was all they had to do to remove Star Sky Technology from their lives.
After the product launch, CNN released flippant reports.
However, something happened after that, which shocked the entire western media…
Everyone was surprised.
The public opinion on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter was not what they had imagined.
The people were still protesting.
But in addition to the current protests, the newly born opinions were not supporting the boycott against some kind of evil brainwas.h.i.+ng by Star Sky Technology.
Instead, people expressed their frustration on how Star Sky Technology didn’t announce a plan to expand the virtual reality network to their countries. Users wanted this technology as soon as possible.
On the other hand, users in the East Asia region were ecstatic.
The excitement and enthusiasm completely overwhelmed the negative comments.
Even though the supercomputing center in Jinling had not been completed yet, the virtual reality network was slowly becoming a reality.
Many high-tech companies held a neutral position, and social media platforms such as Facebook had begun taking the initiative to reduce the protesters’ voices.
It was as if they had reached a secret agreement with the Chinese.
However, that wasn’t the real scary part.
What made the traditional western media worried, or even scared, was that the people did not care about their take on the technology.
They were losing their influence.
They were losing their credibility status.
The flocks of sheep that used to be manipulated by them were now ignoring them…