Worshipping The Technology Gods

CALL THEN "the fab five". or maybe "the fearsome five". Whichever, do it respectfully, for your own good. They already exert great influence in your life, and they haven't even started in earnest. If you're not careful, they will own you. Arguably, they already do. Not Wal Mart, not Kmart, not General Motors, General Electric, not U.S Steel. Not Wall Street, nor any big bank or financial services corporation. Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google. MAFAG, the great technology god, which controls your life, and can do whatever it wishes with you. You cannot live without computer assistance, either at work, at home, or in your financial life. When you turn on television, or drive your car, Microsoft designs the software, Apple manufactures the devices you rely on. Facebook lures you into membership, and you become not their customer, but their voluntary merchandise, and the great Facebook lord markets you at will, to any corporation it chooses. Without Facebook, you live alone, very alone, because everybody else uses Facebook, Facebook uses them, rather, and if you are not a member, you are without any friends beyond your own neighborhood. Amazon has yet to make a profit, because all revenues are reinvested in the company, so intent is this monster upon growth. Even now it is penetrating the prescription drug business; there is no aspect of modern economic enterprise in which Amazon will not eventually be dominantly involved. Even now, Amazon has announced its intention of building a huge new operations center, somewhere in America, somewhere which meets its requirements, and every major metropolitan area in the country, and some not so major, are lining up below the great throne of Amazon dot com, pleading their case, begging to be given a chance, and the great honor of receiving the blessing from the Amazonian god. The fortunate winner will receive an economic bonanza, and the behemoth will announce the lucky winner; when it is good and ready. The American people have no choice but to wait for the god to speak. Google provides us with all knowledge. Without Google, there is no hope of knowing things we must know. Even if you think you have nothing to do with any of these monstrous corporations, you do. You are utterly dependent on them, even if you don't know it. Together, they are worth trillions of dollars. They may have more money than the United States Treasury. and as of now, they are entirely beyond government regulation, able for the moment, and for the foreseeable future to do whatever they want with us. Combined, they have more wealth than the rest of the American economy in total, or soon will have. current anti trust law does not cover them, is not modern enough to include these giants in its domain, because most of what they are does not actually exist in an one place, in any one state or universe, instead being widely scattered in the internet, in this imaginary thing called "the cloud". In a more sane world there would be a limit to how large and powerful they could become, but his is not a sane world, and by the time the United States people and its government realize the very real need to regulate and perhaps break them up into smaller competitive pieces so they can compete like companies do in a normal, healthy capitalistic economy, it may be too late. they may have by then already consolidated their power and reach beyond the ability of any government to have any influence or control over their behavior whatever. that is beyond frightening. it may require a world governing body to deal with them, a world government which does not, and quite likely never will exist.