Big Tech Companies Are Becoming More Powerful Than Nation-States

A few years ago, I was having dinner with a friend who worked at Google. As we were discussing the ins and outs of the tech world, he casually remarked:"Google is going to take over the world you know." Driving home and reflecting on that remark I thought:"How curious." But now, as I contemplate the shambles our democracy has become, I'm more inclined to think:"How prescient.

Advanced computer technology and the internet have given us many wonderful gifts when rightly applied. But we now know they can also be terrible taskmasters, impersonal forces that can dehumanize our personal interactions, cause severe mental health problems , and serve as a de-facto wealth transfer mechanism to the billionaire class. Still, we accept the negatives because of the positive benefits. In this sense we might even call hyper-technology a Grand Seduction.

The limitations of these widely used technologies are well known. They include social media and what Harvard professorcalls"surveillance capitalism"—the buying and selling of our personal info and even our DNA in the corporate marketplace. But powerful new ones are poised to create another wave of radical change.

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