Embrace, Extend, Extinguish You (The Social Dilemma)

Microsoft perfected the idea of control of competing software. The idea was a simple 3-step process. Embrace: Create a high quality, "free", copy of a useful idea (e.g. the Java language). Extend: Add new "features" that only worked in the MS version (J++) Extinguish: Flood the market, requiring J++, to drive out the competition. Now, the FAANGs are doing the same thing... but to people. Embrace: Wow, look at these useful "free" tools: email, browsers, cloud storage, group meeting, etc. Extend: Upload all your data to the cloud! Link all your data! Use your data everywhere on everything (provided "everwhere and everything" are from one company... MS Store, Apple Store, Google Drive, etc.) Extinguish: You no longer need local storage. Everything about you is "in the cloud". You computer is now just a "window on your world"... MS will update it when it wants. Chrome will. Firefox will. To quote from the TV show "The Outer Limits"... There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. We control the horizontal, we control the vertical. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control what you see and hear. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to… The Outer Limits.”