Openwashing and Manifestos Composed in Private by Dictators With Deliberately Addictive (and Subsidised, Bundled) 'Tech'
Psychological manipulation wrapped up and sold as "Tech" (with a capital "T")
The Cyber Show has this excellent article today (and some words of wisdom). It talks mostly about Kapo-Berg and the likes of him - Thiel mentioned by name - trying to impose their self-serving vision on all of us while openwashing along the way:
Their aim is dangerous, to deliberately foment a mass psychotic split view of "technological society" as an all-or-nothing affair. They hope that, as with the Luddites, governments desperate for economic growth will come to their side to violently beat the dissenters into compliance.
They over-estimate their hand.
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When Meta's CEO says "open source" he really means heavily licensed, restricted and patented stuff owned by Meta. He's not talking about software freedom or equal opportunity for the little guy who doesn't happen to have a megawatt data centre in his back garden.
Like the other manifestos his is refreshingly unguarded (in an attempt to appear honest I think). It's healthy that these kids express themselves. It's sad though, seeing someone wishing he could cosplay a real revolutionary and somehow remain a dishonest self-serving billionaire.
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Some paragraphs of truth in the Zuckerfesto are probably meant for the Pentagon, about the inherent and invisible bias of all "AI" which makes it an effective trojan when encoding American values. Worth taking note here of Meta's comfort with chat-bots as invisible disinformation and influence machines.
A comment on tone. The litany of what "people always want to do" assumptions is agonising. We get it, you're telling us what we want, not asking.
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If I said no serious computer scientist, political scientist, anthropologist would pay it notice, I'd fall right into that trap. Regardless its merit I do take it seriously - and all serious thinkers should pay attention too - because, as per the Trump/Putin play-book, expert dismissal is warmly welcomed. All the better to oil the passage of this PR bolus down the tract of its intended audience of populists. Less reflective software freedom activists may be easily fooled. Meta is standing up for your ideals here, no?
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Of course it's unsurprising that people with something to sell to you make claims about its inevitability and fundamental necessity. But the project of "AI", centralised social media, and the lock-step "smart" social order has taken on dangerous, sinister new tones in the 2026 global heat-wave. Climate crisis is at our doorsteps and the choice between planet-consuming vanity-tech and continuity of life on Earth is in stark relief. Thiel, AltmaSn, Amodei and Andreessen equally seem misattuned. None see beyond the very small world of a "business leader".
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Whereas the tech bros probably see their screeds as the first type of manifesto they are squarely situated between the third and last sort. They come across as nakedly desperate defences of a dying model of technology which they wish to preserve. Technology to turn man against man for profit.
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