Assange described a future where AI-powered algorithms serve us a customized feed of information based on data collected about our search queries and interests, calculated to appeal to our biases a…
Collusion of the oligarchs: Data centers buy up all the hardware on the planet, companies stop manufacturing components for PCs, since “it’s no longer profitable”. Micron already killed Crucial, for example.
all hardware now sold is locked down, walled garden tablets with minimal RAM and storage - you must stream everything from the cloud. They control the software choices and the encryption keys.
AI agents review vast amounts of text, files, and communications, and surface any interesting anomalies. Dissident is silenced. News is censored.
Your data is held hostage. If you step out of line, if you run into financial troubles, your personal affects and memories are deleted.
It’s a prison. We let them get rich enough to imprison us with the tech we developed for them.
It feels the closest in terms of fictional metaphor. We had this wondrous thing that let us connect to others and it was slowly corrupted and ultimately taken over by dark forces. Now using it you risk madness and the only people that truly see any benefits are those same dark forces that corrupted it.
To expand on this point, which is correct:
It’s a prison. We let them get rich enough to imprison us with the tech we developed for them.
It’s a stupid comparison, but I always think of The Ways from The Wheel of Time books. https://wheeloftime.fandom.com/wiki/Ways
It feels the closest in terms of fictional metaphor. We had this wondrous thing that let us connect to others and it was slowly corrupted and ultimately taken over by dark forces. Now using it you risk madness and the only people that truly see any benefits are those same dark forces that corrupted it.