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Science-Technology Title: The Technological Elite Are Now in Control A few days before President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered one of the most remarkable and memorable farewell addresses in American history. He didn’t summarize his accomplishments; he didn’t offer platitudes about the greatness of the American people and the bright future that awaits us. Instead, he warned us. He warned us about invisible forces that were taking shape in our country and that threatened to undermine democracy – to turn our great experiment – government by the people – into an illusion. His warning about what he viewed as the rise of a “military-industrial complex” – a potentially dangerous collaboration between our military leaders and the leaders of the vast industries that build our weapons – has been echoed many times over the decades. Because Eisenhower led Allied forces in World War II, his warning about the potential such a collaboration had for influencing the decisions of our elected officials was unnerving. We have safeguards in place to limit that influence – mandatory bidding procedures, for example, for large government contracts. But are those safeguards adequate? Could profit motives have driven some of the more questionable military actions our country has initiated in recent decades – our invasion of Iraq, for example? Eisenhower’s speech also contained a warning that has been almost entirely overlooked, but it’s the one that should concern us most, especially given some of the questions that were raised about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Nearly 60 years ago – long before the microcomputer and the internet were invented – nearly four decades before Google was founded – Eisenhower warned about the rise of a “technological elite” that could control public policy without people knowing. We had to be vigilant, he said, or these new forces would undermine our system of government, placing the real power into the hands of a small group of invisible executives who are not accountable to the American public. I’m sorry to report that the American people have not been vigilant and that Eisenhower’s disturbing vision of the future has come true – and on a scale that he never could have imagined. Let me tell you how I know this – and why a prominent Washington, DC attorney recently told me I should go into hiding. She’s not the first person to have told me this, by the way. Experimental Research Shows the Power I’ve been conducting randomized, controlled experiments for nearly 8 years now that show beyond any doubt the immense power that Google and other tech companies – I like to call them “Google-and-theGang” – have to shift attitudes, opinions, beliefs, purchases, and votes without people knowing and without leaving a paper trail for authorities to trace. I’ve had to name the manipulation techniques I’ve discovered because they’re truly new – made possible by the ubiquitous internet, the self-destructive ways in which tech companies have bamboozled us into interacting with their software, and the rise of monopolies far larger and more powerful than any that have ever existed on this planet. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread |
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