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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 sor
by 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 agoDARPA 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 agoIf 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 agoOh, Hacker News. Don't ever change.
- blackbagboys 10y agoThis 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.