their kingdom can be unplugged
this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
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Not once they have private armies of killer robots.
"We don't know who struck first, us or them. But we do know it was us that scorched the sky. At the time, they were dependent on solar power. It was believed they would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun."
If they have marching armies of weaponized death machines they will also definitely have unlicensed nuclear reactors.
And their workers outfitted with kill switches. Probably their stupid phones first, later collars that can deliver paid or death remotely. Dark shit.
We can already see how this will work out. They get you trapped in their walled garden kingdom.
If you get banned from their services and you can't access your files, make payments, login to your phone or computer, start your car, etcetcetc.
Remember when we denounced China for setting that up 15 years ago?
Butlerian jihad when?
While true now, with the introduction of micro reactors, we might truely be fucked
These clowns can't operate this shit safely. They will mini melt down and scapegoat others then do it again.
The regulators have been relegated to bootlicking. There is no one making them do it safely, only their own judgement (shudders.)
We are truly fucked though, and this nuclear bs is part of it.
We are either headed to Cyberpunk or Fallout, but without the cool shit!
this nuclear bs is part of it.
I'm out of the loop, what's this nuclear bs about?
Data centers have paid off the government to do a bunch of nuclear mini reactors, the administration naturally cannibalized the Nuclear regulatory commission already, Some are opening old ones, like the infamamous three mile island that melted down, but others are doing the mini thing.
I was looking for the guardian article I just read like a week ago and the enshitified search engines aren't producing it, they aren't even trying to find what we ask. These guys are trustworthy though, and will explain the process at least.
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2506_FSW_GoingNuclear.pdf
Nuclear is actually one of the safest forms of power, with the corollary that competency is the norm in the industry. I spent years in the Naval Nuclear program and they have not had an uncontrolled release of radioactive contamination to the public in the 80 year history of the program.
Three Mile Island killed nobody, and the reactor they are restarting had been operating up until 2015.
While I am less than pleased that it's basically all going to Microdick's AI centers, it's important not to lump nuclear power in by guilt by association.
Destroying just one satellite will cause the debris to take all of them out. Someone will do this eventually :(
We aren't at kessler cascade levels of orbital clutter yet.
"Hold my ketamine"
I guess technofeudalism didn't catch on, so he's attempting a rebrand.
A stupid one. Lordism was never a thing.
Dark Enlightenment.
There is nothing enlightened about this descent into the abyss.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment
This what Thiel believes in.
Jfc, it's like the megacorp-run city states in Shadowrun. How the fuck does anyone think this is a good idea?
Megacorps: "I don't get it, why aren't you all on board?"
Simple: they can't imagine not being at the top, and they're so empty inside they don't see why it sucks to be at the top too. All they see is their own ambition and their belief in the inferiority of others. They don't understand that megacorp leaders or kings both are stuck forced to rule as long as possible while under constant threat by those who wish to take their place or upend their structures of power.
Sword of Damocles remains undefeated.
They can only think as far as the next quarter's profits
Nah Thiel is deeply ideological and playing long games in pursuit of it
We live in a cyberpunk dystopia without the good bits
They have a lot more power than we do, and most of the peasantry support them. This is our future. We'd best learn to live with it in public, and gum up the works in private.
The problem is wider than the tech companies, so personally I'd prefer a wider definition that includes the non tech bad actors. Something like "Return of the Robber Barons".
Robber Barons = By the late 19th century, the term was typically applied to businessmen who used exploitative practices to amass their wealth. Those practices included unfettered consumption and destruction of natural resources, influencing high levels of government, wage slavery, squashing competition by acquiring their competitors, and to create monopolies and/or trusts that control the market. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist)
That description seems like a perfect match for the present day USA economy.
The goal of neoliberalism was always neofeudalism. It was the means to this ends.
Entrepreneurs don’t unionize
It's called Oligarchy and it predates Tech "Overlords" in America.
this is simply neoliberalism without a mask
It's the age of "Mega Tech Corporations"
If corporations become immune to oversight by state legislative bodies, they exert pressure on governments and transform into feudal structures.At this point, countries that host technology companies have a major role to play.Today, if a technology company has billions of dollars, it can certainly pressure the government to act in its own interests.At this point, the government needs to create legal regulations for these types of companies.
*(tech)warlordism
This article implicitly references but does not specifically mention, the essay The Network State, which spiritually feels like a predecessor to what Palantir decided to unleash on the world the other day.
Time to tax the rich. This has gone on long enough.
A potentially odd thought, but the power and reach of US tech oligarchs is based on US softpower -- the same stuff this guy is basically saying is useless. One reason US stocks/companies get lots of investment/support is the belief that US companies have more default in-roads to all western nations -- invest in a US tech co, you get access to all western markets. It's one reason they have the market power they flex. Even Iran had reports of their cisco devices failing during recent US aggression -- so even the USA's enemies had figured US tech was 'country neutral', stupidly, and their obvious mistake cost them dearly. Other nation's will see that as a learning moment.
Western nations have started pulling away from US tech / hegemony. Places like France are eye'ing Linux, the Netherlands central bank declared it reasonable to expect US tech excised from their banking ecosystem in 4 years or so, Canada's openly declaring US ties a weakness. So investing in a company like Microsoft, may no longer translate into investing in a company with a global reach within the western world -- their stock 'should' eventually price this in. It's one reason the tech overlords have directed the US government to challenge any/all pushes for data sovereignty.
And as for the end of nuke dominance and rise of AI drone warfare and all that.... he's an AI hammer salesman, declaring all problems are AI nails... hes clearly biased. We're seeing drones as a viable option currently, because people are so scared shitless of nuclear conflicts. Just because people are too scared to use the massively destructive weapons, doesn't mean that the deterrent factor of those weapons is meaningless. It's why few countries have directly helped ukraine in their conflict with Russia. Hell, the states and Israel are busy justifying a war to try and prevent a country from getting nukes -- and they're beating up a country that only had drone power. While their campaign isn't going as well as they may claim publicly, I know Iranians who've confirmed things like "All the airports are destroyed, and most of our projects/work is closed, so we're just sitting at home kind of waiting at this point". Those drones didn't really help deter anything / protect the people all that much -- having nukes likely would've, as we see in cases like North Korea and Russia. Even in cases like the USA, where their veering into a fascist dictatorship garnered little comment from western nations, who were afraid of upsetting their nuclear-umbrella.
Well, the plan then, if other countries start pulling away from US tech/hegemony as you suggest they will do, and are doing, is to use overwhelming military force with unending waves of AI-powered killer robots capable of combat in land, sea, and air. Use them everywhere, all at once, against everyone in a titanic billionaire temper tantrum the likes of which has never been seen on Earth. Because, if Karp and Thiel and Andreesen and all the other tech oligarchs don't get their wish, they will absolutely attempt to totally annihilate the planet in a massive temper tantrum.
Neo Liberals are still in control of the, controlled opposition, the Democratic Party.
I see a bunch of people in this thread picking bones with Yanis' word usage.
I upvoted the best of those that are simple, straightforward, and focus on what they want instead of what they don't.
The legit way to go negative is to demonstrate real tangible harm, and not just tell me you don't like it. You don't like the word? Well boo fucking hoo your little boo boo. Everyone likes or dislikes all sorts of things. Why should I care about this particular dislike of yours? Why is it important? Convince me.
I see Yanis Varoufakis as an ally. He's making great points. Are the points new? Who gives a shit? I don't. Is he convincing new people every day? Yes, he is. Is he opening and helping align new minds every day? No shit. Yes. Absolutely. Is he eloquent, clear, and persuasive? Yes, yes, yes. And that's what matters.
I will upvote Yanis as long as he keeps being the Yanis that I know and like. I know what he is going to say. And that's fine. It's like if Ricardo Semler were giving a new talk I could guess the content. If Richard Wolff says something new, I can guess the general gist of what it is. That doesn't make it wrong or bad. There are still folks out there who need to hear it. New people are born every day. Every day is someone's first time.
The bigger reason Yanis is popular is because he served in an important government post in Greece. And he is right. That helps too. No need to produce useless unproductive friction toward Yanis. ("Oh, but his taxonomy is not to my liking!" holy batman what a low value comment)
I myself use all these words: neofeudalism, economic royalists, oligarchs, fascists, cappies, wealth consolidationists, private property fetishists, free market fundamentalists, libertarians, etc. There is not just one legit way to describe that evil. The point is to oppose the wealth and economic decision consolidation and to oppose the erosion of the commons. That's it.
Buy GGLL, Google owns mobile, its not going anywhere.
It also uses efficient TPU for AI, so has an advantage there too.