Facebook Reality Labs is developing LiveMaps, the planet-sized foundation of future augmented reality systems. LiveMaps is a 3D version of the world, offering a shared reality that will theoretically allow users to teleport, access virtual assistants and view relevant information about the artificially generated landscapes around them. By tapping into a previously generated 3D composite of reality, AR glasses won't need to reconstruct physical spaces in real-time, saving on computing power and allowing the hardware to run on mobile chipsets.

LiveMaps is a necessary and innovative solution to a core problem of AR computing. It clears a roadblock that has impeded headsets like Google Glass and even Magic Leap, removing real-time world-simulation processes from the equation almost entirely. In the first generation of LiveMaps, developers are using existing mapping technology and machine vision to recreate spaces, pulling data points from geotagged public images. Meanwhile, they're banking on the ubiquity of future smart devices to provide even more information, populating details about the world as users move through it.

All of this will eventually coalesce into a new, Facebook-controlled reality, laid directly on top of the physical world. In Facebook's AR, people travel the world as holograms, visiting new locations and sharing dinner with family members who live an ocean away. People work at the jobs they want to, regardless of where they live, helping to bridge the economic divide. Information cards pop up alongside animals as children walk by, piquing curiosity and engagement, and navigation becomes second nature as the streets light up with relevant information. It's a beautiful scene.

It's also deeply unsettling. In this vision of the future, Facebook is literally building a new reality -- one that it can change on a whim, removing objects and mechanics that don't mesh with its corporate ideals, and adding objectives that have been purchased by the highest bidder.

With 2.4 billion monthly users, Facebook already shapes our reality, but LiveMaps is an unambiguous attempt to replace the physical world with a new, bespoke version entirely controlled by Mark Zuckerberg and friends. LiveMaps is Facebook playing corporate God.