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We're really moving into the strange cyberpunk dystopian future when CEOs start writing bizarre manifestos about how they want to reshape the world like this. R

by 65827 10y ago

We're really moving into the strange cyberpunk dystopian future when CEOs start writing bizarre manifestos about how they want to reshape the world like this. Really just a few years out from private corporate armies I think (Zuckerberg already has a small private army protecting him with heavy weaponry) and cyber wars and espionage and open defiance of governments. Like we all knew this was an option of where we were going but to see it actually happening is kind of surreal.

overcast 10y ago
I'm already expecting Facebook to announce their Metal Gear project.
xenihn 10y ago
Just wait until those private armies start to fight each other.
decebalus1 10y ago
> (Zuckerberg already has a small private army protecting him with heavy weaponry) Source? I agree with your ideas overall but I'm genuinely interested in this aspect.
- Someone1234 10y ago
  There's some details here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-28/facebook-spent-12-5-million-to-protect-zuckerberg-since-2013 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-28/facebook-... I think calling four full time guards a "small private army" is a little hyperbolic, but it is safe to say he is heavily protected.
  - 3pt14159 10y ago
    Kinda BS, to be honest. The CEO of Canada Goose Jackets has full time protection. If you're worth a lot of money you need to be careful with your security.
  - unhinged_wanker 10y ago
    Maybe most of the time King Zuck only has 4 people guarding him personally, but if you think that facebook security staff that he controls is just those 4 guys, you're crazy.
- purple-again 10y ago
  Very wealthy individuals hire private security to protect themselves because they are targets for a class of crime (kidnapping, extortion, etc) that average people have a negligible chance of being targeted for. Private army is a stretch of the terms but technically accurate.
leggomylibro 10y ago
Musk and Bezos both have access to the rocketry tech necessary to produce ballistic missiles, along with autonomous machines which are starting to rival the sort of things usually produced by DARPA. Meanwhile, Facebook is tinkering with the best ways to influence masses of people and journalism/propaganda channels. So I'm not necessarily saying that we're living out a mashup between Shadowrun and that Simpsons episode where Homer starts working for a supervillain, but I'm also not ruling it out.
- munin 10y ago
  DARPA is a funding agency, the only thing they produce are power points. They fund labs and companies that make things. The people that own those labs have this same power too but since they're not as cool as Bezos I guess we don't talk about them?
  - supernumerary 10y ago
    If they loose DARPA funding they go away or re-organise e.g. innumerable research Depts at universities they constantly have to hustle for funding and follow the grant money, Musk and Bezos are independent, their income streams are not going away.
- debaserab2 10y ago
  Oh, Hacker News. Don't ever change.
- blackbagboys 10y ago
  This is not a new phenomenon. Wes Bush (who?) literally makes long-range strategic bombers. The industrial capacity at Musk's or Bezos's disposal only acquires a sinister Shadowrun tint when the institutional structures constraining their ability to act begin to dissolve. If we slide into a cyberpunk dystopia, the catalyst will be political, not technological.
Analemma_ 10y ago
It's not new, though. The phenomenon of business leaders wanting to build cloistered utopias is at least a hundred years old. Henry Ford had "Fordlandia" in Brazil, and Walt Disney was planning to make EPCOT, before the company canned the project after his death. Private armies for the wealthy aren't new either: see the Pinkerton Agency. Note that Fordlandia fell apart and the Pinkertons were outlawed when people realized what a terrible idea that was. But I guess those who don't learn their history are doomed to repeat it.
- kawera 10y ago
  For those interested, the NYT just published a story about Fordlandia: http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/world/americas/deep-in-brazils-amazon-exploring-the-ruins-of-fords-fantasyland.html http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/world/americas/deep-in-bra...
omalleyt 10y ago
Well, like Crassus said in the first century BC, "You're not rich unless you can afford your own army."
Pokepokalypse 10y ago
>Really just a few years out from private corporate armies This has been a thing for over a decade now. Blackwater/Xe/Academi. The guy who founded this company (and got the US kicked out of Iraq), is our Education Secretary's brother. He is being consulted to provide extra security for Trump outside of the Secret Service.

by 65827 10y ago

overcast 10y ago

I'm already expecting Facebook to announce their Metal Gear project.

xenihn 10y ago

Just wait until those private armies start to fight each other.

decebalus1 10y ago

> (Zuckerberg already has a small private army protecting him with heavy weaponry) Source? I agree with your ideas overall but I'm genuinely interested in this aspect.

Someone1234 10y ago
There's some details here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-28/facebook-spent-12-5-million-to-protect-zuckerberg-since-2013 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-28/facebook-... I think calling four full time guards a "small private army" is a little hyperbolic, but it is safe to say he is heavily protected.
- 3pt14159 10y ago
  Kinda BS, to be honest. The CEO of Canada Goose Jackets has full time protection. If you're worth a lot of money you need to be careful with your security.
- unhinged_wanker 10y ago
  Maybe most of the time King Zuck only has 4 people guarding him personally, but if you think that facebook security staff that he controls is just those 4 guys, you're crazy.
purple-again 10y ago
Very wealthy individuals hire private security to protect themselves because they are targets for a class of crime (kidnapping, extortion, etc) that average people have a negligible chance of being targeted for. Private army is a stretch of the terms but technically accurate.

leggomylibro 10y ago

Musk and Bezos both have access to the rocketry tech necessary to produce ballistic missiles, along with autonomous machines which are starting to rival the sort of things usually produced by DARPA. Meanwhile, Facebook is tinkering with the best ways to influence masses of people and journalism/propaganda channels. So I'm not necessarily saying that we're living out a mashup between Shadowrun and that Simpsons episode where Homer starts working for a supervillain, but I'm also not ruling it out.

munin 10y ago
DARPA is a funding agency, the only thing they produce are power points. They fund labs and companies that make things. The people that own those labs have this same power too but since they're not as cool as Bezos I guess we don't talk about them?
- supernumerary 10y ago
  If they loose DARPA funding they go away or re-organise e.g. innumerable research Depts at universities they constantly have to hustle for funding and follow the grant money, Musk and Bezos are independent, their income streams are not going away.
debaserab2 10y ago
Oh, Hacker News. Don't ever change.
blackbagboys 10y ago
This is not a new phenomenon. Wes Bush (who?) literally makes long-range strategic bombers. The industrial capacity at Musk's or Bezos's disposal only acquires a sinister Shadowrun tint when the institutional structures constraining their ability to act begin to dissolve. If we slide into a cyberpunk dystopia, the catalyst will be political, not technological.

Analemma_ 10y ago

It's not new, though. The phenomenon of business leaders wanting to build cloistered utopias is at least a hundred years old. Henry Ford had "Fordlandia" in Brazil, and Walt Disney was planning to make EPCOT, before the company canned the project after his death. Private armies for the wealthy aren't new either: see the Pinkerton Agency. Note that Fordlandia fell apart and the Pinkertons were outlawed when people realized what a terrible idea that was. But I guess those who don't learn their history are doomed to repeat it.

kawera 10y ago
For those interested, the NYT just published a story about Fordlandia: http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/world/americas/deep-in-brazils-amazon-exploring-the-ruins-of-fords-fantasyland.html http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/world/americas/deep-in-bra...

omalleyt 10y ago

Well, like Crassus said in the first century BC, "You're not rich unless you can afford your own army."

Pokepokalypse 10y ago

>Really just a few years out from private corporate armies This has been a thing for over a decade now. Blackwater/Xe/Academi. The guy who founded this company (and got the US kicked out of Iraq), is our Education Secretary's brother. He is being consulted to provide extra security for Trump outside of the Secret Service.