Yes i've been thinking about this more and more: I don't think the cult of Trump would be half as powerful without the social media platforms and the polarizing algorithms that exist today and the sychopantic tech leaders behind them. Tech is now playing Rasputin to government and we are not better off for it. I wonder if Jeff has thrown out enough compliments yet to win some govt contracts for Blue Origin? Musk won't like that. They're both going to be vying for daddy Trump's attention in the first 100 days. The next 4 years are probably going to turn my hair white.
Musk's 5G satellites can be co-opted anytime by the industrial military complex, which runs on the C-band. If you have an iPhone, you are connected to the C-band of NATO. Go hardwired, or go home to Musk.
Musk has already shown that he is able to independently implement foreign policy, by turning his satellite network on or off in conflict zones. Possibly he will be asked to implement US foreign policy by these means. What will be interesting will be if Trump's foreign policy clashes with Musk's business interests -- though when I say "interesting" I'm speaking intellectually, and momentarily ignoring how gut-turning scary it is that someone as narcissistic and mercurial as Musk, who ultimately is answerable to no one, already has so much power in geopolitics.
Once the AI agents take root on our mobiles the control will be complete. I recently asked someone who is working in that area will we be able to switch AI agents off completely, I was met with silence. Choice, in many of its guises, is lost.
I am just finishing your good book, blood in the machine, and thought to find out more about you. I am struck by your blind spots but I guess we all have them. You expose so many of the elite technocrats, but fall short of seeing the big picture. I am to believe that Trump is the breaking point in favor of big tech surveillance? Never mind the government was caught colluding with big pharma in censoring doctors like Jay Batacharia in order to ram novel vaccines down the working man's throat. We have been forced into war after war just like the napolionic wars you cite in your book. I'm not sure who is more pathetic, king george or Joe biden. I am sure you won't believe that I have never voted for Trump, but it's true. The fact is the machine does not need Trump to thrive, if anything he represents a risk (very small) to the modern Oligarchs. What the machine needs is corrupt, maliable actors to tow the line. Think of the new york times and every other parrot promoting the genocide in Gaza with false stories of babies in ovens etc. I digress, may I suggest you extricate yourself from the wealth and prestige surrounding you for a time and dig deeper you are close to the main artery.
Silicon Valley is largely liberal plus Elon hates SF Bay Area (as far as his actions show). So I wouldnt say Silicon Valley and paint us all with this broad brush. Tech CSuite Bros maybe...and some of them just hedging their bets or trying to cozy up to the wanna be dictator.
I think even the very structure of the platform economy is fostering the rise of authoritarianism. This is associative thinking, no causal link implied, but your comment about Joe Rogan made me think: most people go on a platform and follow the same guys, the platform reinforces this mechanism through recommender systems, the long-tail effect is no match. So we just have centripetal online forces structuring a network not only into a core-periphery dynamic, but most scaringly into higher and higher towers of hierarchy. Authoritarianism ensues; then game recognizes game - Trump is this thing, in politics.
“These two men are pretty in tune, and are more similar—each constantly embattled and aggrieved, insecure and never satisfied, incapable of any sustained level of happiness, constantly trying to build bigger monuments to their own egos but always doomed to come up short—than not.”
I feel like Elon Musk just needs to grasp the concept that being an indispensable, brilliant, multi billionaire doesn’t mean people are going to enjoy working with you.
Brian - I can't think of any happy endings for the folks who served Trump in the first incarnation. His campaign manager now announced as Chief of Staff must have had some serious palpitations. It had been reported she would not take a job with him if he was elected. I'd be curious to learn more about that decision. Trump's COS record is brutal. The track record of 2nd Presidential terms which I believe is what this is for Trump is also pretty bad. And as you noted, the space around Donald Trump does not accommodate other large egos well. Trump 2 is unlikely to be a tightly managed, machine-like administration, thankfully. I think Harris-Walz did an incredible job under very challenging circumstances. I hope the Ds avoid going through the circular firing squad exercise again. It would be nice to at least get the House decided, the votes fully counted, and then start postmortems. Tuesday night was just soul-crushing. While I want to see the full count before declaring Trump exceeded Kamala in the popular, the EC is what rules us, of course. But the margin hopefully buries the idea Trump voters don't know what they voted for. I saw a few folks write "This is who we are". Now, I'd say getting a small majority of the vote does not at all establish that. But it seems to me we have to say a big chunk of America didn't care about Trump's record. That needs to be incorporated into any explanation of where the Ds should go now. Personally, I still have to wonder just how easy it is for voters to be ignorant of reality given all the issues you mentioned above. Hopefully folks like you are going to spring up everywhere and grow so that there is at least a credible alternative competing on the net with all the distortion, lies, and bigotry out there.
I'm struck by this evil axis of big tech & trump as well. As ex MSFT they appear to be the one big tech off on the sidelines at least a smoosh. Bill gave Kamala $50M 🤫 and at least if Satya called I didn't hear about it. I did see sama on X doing the fealty tweet but openAI are increasingly distancing themselves from MSFT
Yes i've been thinking about this more and more: I don't think the cult of Trump would be half as powerful without the social media platforms and the polarizing algorithms that exist today and the sychopantic tech leaders behind them. Tech is now playing Rasputin to government and we are not better off for it. I wonder if Jeff has thrown out enough compliments yet to win some govt contracts for Blue Origin? Musk won't like that. They're both going to be vying for daddy Trump's attention in the first 100 days. The next 4 years are probably going to turn my hair white.
Hi Brian, we cited your article here, on the political analysis newspaper Micromega, one of the best known in Italy, https://www.micromega.net/la-silicon-valley-ha-ottenuto-cio-che-voleva
Molto bene, thank you — I can even read a little of this, as I know a (very) little Italian!
Musk's 5G satellites can be co-opted anytime by the industrial military complex, which runs on the C-band. If you have an iPhone, you are connected to the C-band of NATO. Go hardwired, or go home to Musk.
Gonna be a lot of stuff in this arena going forward, I fear — intertwining of public and private infrastructure
Musk has already shown that he is able to independently implement foreign policy, by turning his satellite network on or off in conflict zones. Possibly he will be asked to implement US foreign policy by these means. What will be interesting will be if Trump's foreign policy clashes with Musk's business interests -- though when I say "interesting" I'm speaking intellectually, and momentarily ignoring how gut-turning scary it is that someone as narcissistic and mercurial as Musk, who ultimately is answerable to no one, already has so much power in geopolitics.
Once the AI agents take root on our mobiles the control will be complete. I recently asked someone who is working in that area will we be able to switch AI agents off completely, I was met with silence. Choice, in many of its guises, is lost.
Nobody remembers Tillerson in the DOE because he was Secretary of State.
yep caught that too late thx -- the downsides of writing on 4 hrs of sleep
I am just finishing your good book, blood in the machine, and thought to find out more about you. I am struck by your blind spots but I guess we all have them. You expose so many of the elite technocrats, but fall short of seeing the big picture. I am to believe that Trump is the breaking point in favor of big tech surveillance? Never mind the government was caught colluding with big pharma in censoring doctors like Jay Batacharia in order to ram novel vaccines down the working man's throat. We have been forced into war after war just like the napolionic wars you cite in your book. I'm not sure who is more pathetic, king george or Joe biden. I am sure you won't believe that I have never voted for Trump, but it's true. The fact is the machine does not need Trump to thrive, if anything he represents a risk (very small) to the modern Oligarchs. What the machine needs is corrupt, maliable actors to tow the line. Think of the new york times and every other parrot promoting the genocide in Gaza with false stories of babies in ovens etc. I digress, may I suggest you extricate yourself from the wealth and prestige surrounding you for a time and dig deeper you are close to the main artery.
Ps. thanks again for your good book.
Silicon Valley is largely liberal plus Elon hates SF Bay Area (as far as his actions show). So I wouldnt say Silicon Valley and paint us all with this broad brush. Tech CSuite Bros maybe...and some of them just hedging their bets or trying to cozy up to the wanna be dictator.
Did it though? Definitely the loud ones got what they wanted .. but that’s not ‘all’.
Hi Brian: The shoutout in today's NYT brought me here. I have fond memories of our time with the Toyota Teacher Training Program in the Galapagos, which you covered for Treehugger. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/opinion/trump-musk-social-media.html
John Herzfeld
I think even the very structure of the platform economy is fostering the rise of authoritarianism. This is associative thinking, no causal link implied, but your comment about Joe Rogan made me think: most people go on a platform and follow the same guys, the platform reinforces this mechanism through recommender systems, the long-tail effect is no match. So we just have centripetal online forces structuring a network not only into a core-periphery dynamic, but most scaringly into higher and higher towers of hierarchy. Authoritarianism ensues; then game recognizes game - Trump is this thing, in politics.
“These two men are pretty in tune, and are more similar—each constantly embattled and aggrieved, insecure and never satisfied, incapable of any sustained level of happiness, constantly trying to build bigger monuments to their own egos but always doomed to come up short—than not.”
I feel like Elon Musk just needs to grasp the concept that being an indispensable, brilliant, multi billionaire doesn’t mean people are going to enjoy working with you.
Brian - I can't think of any happy endings for the folks who served Trump in the first incarnation. His campaign manager now announced as Chief of Staff must have had some serious palpitations. It had been reported she would not take a job with him if he was elected. I'd be curious to learn more about that decision. Trump's COS record is brutal. The track record of 2nd Presidential terms which I believe is what this is for Trump is also pretty bad. And as you noted, the space around Donald Trump does not accommodate other large egos well. Trump 2 is unlikely to be a tightly managed, machine-like administration, thankfully. I think Harris-Walz did an incredible job under very challenging circumstances. I hope the Ds avoid going through the circular firing squad exercise again. It would be nice to at least get the House decided, the votes fully counted, and then start postmortems. Tuesday night was just soul-crushing. While I want to see the full count before declaring Trump exceeded Kamala in the popular, the EC is what rules us, of course. But the margin hopefully buries the idea Trump voters don't know what they voted for. I saw a few folks write "This is who we are". Now, I'd say getting a small majority of the vote does not at all establish that. But it seems to me we have to say a big chunk of America didn't care about Trump's record. That needs to be incorporated into any explanation of where the Ds should go now. Personally, I still have to wonder just how easy it is for voters to be ignorant of reality given all the issues you mentioned above. Hopefully folks like you are going to spring up everywhere and grow so that there is at least a credible alternative competing on the net with all the distortion, lies, and bigotry out there.
Okay, but Rex Tillerson was a lobbyist installment. I don’t think that’s an apt comparison to Musk’s potential involvement with the administration.
I'm struck by this evil axis of big tech & trump as well. As ex MSFT they appear to be the one big tech off on the sidelines at least a smoosh. Bill gave Kamala $50M 🤫 and at least if Satya called I didn't hear about it. I did see sama on X doing the fealty tweet but openAI are increasingly distancing themselves from MSFT