this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2026

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111

Big Tech Oligarchs Have a Terrible Plan for Humanity (www.theatlantic.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 45 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Transhumanism is bullshit marketing. What they really want it to take away your ability to use compute without paying them rent and being under supervised conditions. This is why they are buying up all the essential components - so we can’t have them.

Then we can’t organize, we can’t manage our lives, we cannot dissent. They can silence us, they can erase us, they can control and manipulate us. And if they wanted to, they could kill us off and hide the evidence (or claim that it was faked).

Welcome to the global pantopticon.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 21 points 2 weeks ago

Look, I've long had an interest in futurism/transhumanism/extropianism, etc...more as a what-if scenario.

But if these fuckers are going to be the ones determining how it plays out, using their network state bullshit from weird creeps like Curtis Yarvin, Thiel, and the authors of The Sovereign Individual?

Well, they can fuck all the way off. They all strike me as johnny-come-lately bullshit artists with just a fuck-ton of money and only thinking of themselves.

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Earlier this month, Elon Musk, the head of SpaceXAI and the richest man on Earth, posted on X, “Propagating super intelligence to the stars is a great success condition for a biological bootloader

This guy. He's so full of shit. Fucking gibberish-ass bullshit.

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I was lucky enough to speak to a friend in the environmental space about 10 years ago. I was never a super fan of Musk but I casually muttered something about Teslas being good as electrics.

They interrupted the conversation and made it clear to the group that Musk was more of a bullshit artist than the public were aware and that we was unclear to do any good for the environment at least not reliably.

Then I spoke to someone in tech that clued me into the same perspective. I’d never realised how much of a cult of personality had been built around him until then. Seeing him unfold in this way since then has certainly been “interesting”.

Apart from the particulars of Musk, I think the lesson is to never get involved in a cult of personality.

[–] b34k@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

To me it was those kids trapped in a cave that he was going to design a submarine to save. And then how he reacted to the actual hero divers who went in there and rescued the children.

How he handled that entire situation was awoke me to the fact that this “genius of space and EV tech” was actually just full of shit.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Yup the drugs were in control and he couldn't keep his mouth shut. There is a hole in his soul that nothing can fill.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Musk wants to make a backup of himself and move to a new star and recreate the world in his image. The real problem with that is no matter what it will never be him. I doubt its possible in his lifetime. This motherfucker will die with a surprised look on his face.

[–] santa@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Maybe they can all leave for mars and leave us the f alone. We were fine before. Take away my cell phone. Give me an address book, a map and bring back phone booths, atms and over the air tv. We survived before all this tech sh$!, and we can do it again.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 weeks ago

I am so down for this, Santa.

[–] Saljid@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Back to the 90s, gotcha.

Was better in almost every aspect anyway (YMMV)

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Honestly, I think this is one of the big questions of our moment.

How can distinct societies with different technological eco systems co-exist on this planet?

We’ve got extreme examples like monks in monasteries, the Amish, Orthodox Jews etc. But at some point, maybe now, there may be many who’d really like and even at a psychological level “need” to live in a different ecosystem quite different from the wants of “the global market”.

You can try to get a dumb phone or not use AI or whatever. But thinking in terms of hard exclusions and ecosystem health seems to me necessary.

[–] RumRunningDevil@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago

I would be open to this.

I despise AI, fully and completely. If given the opportunity to live and work somewhere where it doesn't exist I would happily.

[–] Rujo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Problem is they would (will) destroy Earth on exodus so no one could follow.

[–] alexquiniou@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 weeks ago

Remember Kingsman 1 ?

[–] Corvidae@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Machines are, in fact, already beginning to replace us. And the vision Big Tech oligarchs have for the future gets only more frightening. Musk is building Neuralink to implant chips in people’s brains in order to achieve a “symbiosis with artificial intelligence.” Thiel has decamped to Argentina, where President Javier Milei has called for the establishment of “non-human corporations” operated by AI agents, for which “human shareholders may participate, but are not required.” An Anthropic co-founder, Christopher Olah, has been trying to convince religious leaders, including the pope, that AI could be conscious.

Corporations that don't need any humans? Human corporations already seem too powerful relative to mere citizens, this ratchets that power up a few notches. What does it mean for democracy?

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It's going to be a mechanical turk to allow anonymous shell corporations. They'll do bad stuff, blame it on AI, and then everyone else will just shrug and act like there's nothing that can be done.