The purchase of Oculus may seem like a company hedging its bets, but Chris Dixon at Andreessen Horowitz (a major investor in the startup) explained it quite well. "The way to understand this purchase is to think of Google buying Android in 2005. That confused a lot of people at the time. Facebook believes that virtual reality will become the next major platform, the same way mobile computing did, and they want to make sure they have a big stake in that."

This wouldn't be the first time Facebook has made a play to become the internet — just think about its many privacy encroachments, search initiatives, and attacks on competing companies — but it is the first time that Facebook could legitimately own the window into the next phase of connectivity. And you can be sure that Mark Zuckerberg doesn't want to own that window so you can look out onto other people's property — he wants you looking at his property.

"Today's acquisition is a long-term bet on the future of computing."

"Today's acquisition is a long-term bet on the future of computing. I believe Oculus can be one of the platforms of the future," Zuckerberg said. But Facebook is a business, and so Oculus must fit into its business plan. And of course it does. "We now have Oculus joining us, which long-term can be one of the next important computing platforms. And of course we will continue to focus on our extremely important work of building out our advertising platform as well, as part of this."

"Imagine enjoying a court-side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world, consulting a doctor face-to-face, or even shopping in a virtual store where you can explore the products you're interested in... just by putting on goggles in your own home."

Just like the future envisioned in some of our best science fiction, the things to come are fantastic and exciting, but often tinged with darkness. The most breathtaking vistas can hide something terrifying — something inhuman. The wedding of Oculus VR — a company with a literally boundless vision of things to come — to an entity like Facebook gives us a taste of both, perhaps in equal measure. It's true that no company other than Facebook could connect us together the way that we have been connected in the past decade, but it's also true that no company could taint that experience in quite the same way. As a service, Facebook is inspiring, as a platform, Facebook is scary.

That company now controls one of the most exciting technologies of the past 50 years. A truly revolutionary product that has reignited a dream many felt was all but dead and gone. What it will do with that technology is the only question that remains. I submit that history is an excellent teacher.

So learn your lessons well.