The HBO series “Silicon Valley”
has taken over from “The big bang theory”, now gone all soft and domestic, in
exploring the inner world of the nerd. In this case, however, the nerds are
cast adrift amid vulture capitalists, peers who want to steal their algorithms,
and the redoubtable Peter Thiel (a thinly disguised character called Peter Gregory
“died” after the first series, probably due to Thiel’s lawyers).
The main character, Richie Hendrix, is a programming
elitist; some of the most insightful sequences show that his ideas derive, or
can be reconstructed, from physical motion. His capacity to handle meetings is limited
and hilariously he loses control of one to his salespeople. A classic line due
to Gavin Belsom whose Huli company resembles an anarchic Google; yes, we all
want to make the world a better place, but to hell with any company doing so
better than us…….
It is unlikely to end well for Richie and Pied Piper. It
also fits perfectly with the intuitions many of us have about the real Silicon Valley. It started with the egomaniac nobellist
Shockley losing the “traitorous 8” whence came Fairchild, Intel and much else. With
Netscape’s launch in the mid-90’s, a frenzy started that famously ended badly
in 2001. Yet web 1.0 had many good ideas.
Web 2.0 took no chances whatsoever. After Google plagiarized
Adsense, the way was open for companies that produced no content whatsoever but
simply channeled Wall Street values. It may be hard to convey to younger
readers that it was originally OUR internet; one went there to escape Wall
Street values. While the jury is out on Google, there is no doubt that Facebook
was initially funded by the CIA. The deal; put all your personal data up on
social media and you get spying 24/7 thrown in for free.
Of course, Facebook and Google would not succeed without
copyright violation on a cosmic scale. Producers of “content” ie artists,
investigative journalists, and others who add greatly to society, are used as a
means to the end of enriching upstart multi-billionaires. What can be done?
First, countries like Ireland need to stop whoring
themselves out to these companies. Secondly, nation-states need to follow the
EC in bringing these scams to book for their copyright violation on Youtube,
Facebook, and elsewhere. Thirdly, nation-states should begin to stop Google
crawling government sites and demand that all these companies delete all
information held on their citizens without a meeting of minds taking place to
hand it over. Fourthly, the EU and big countries like Brazil, India
and China
can create their own packet-switching
network that will allow secure e-mail and other services like blogs. Fifthly,
the efforts of the unlucky Richie are paralleled in real life by thousands of
gifted coders who might have competed with Silicon Valley but cannot compete
with Silicon Valley + the CIA, NSA and the other 3-letter agencies we saw to be
involved when a journalist got hold of a new Apple phone left in a bar and
these coders must be encouraged. Finally, the nascent violation of safety regulations
by Air BnB plus others needs to be stopped now.
The fact that Facebook, Google and others were founded by college
drop-outs will do the rest. In particular, not only are they making classic AI
mistakes; Google is also spending billions on biology problems neither it not
its hires understand. Let them fail, without further CIA help, please!
PS June 25 2017
I travel reluctantly, and thiswill probably get worse. This year so far the following problems were web-related and maybe GAFA should work on this rather than making unemplyed the whole human race;
1. Are lingus does not really want you to change your booking over the web. So it has an option to do so that doesn't work and you have t phone them(Lost 3 hours; Feb 2017)
2. Irish Ferries does not really want you to change your booking over the web. So it has an option to do so that doesn't work and you have t phone them(Lost 3 hours; June 2017)
3. Allied Irish misspelled my name on my credit card. So neither Are lingus nor SNCF had a record of my booking (lost much time and meetingsMay 2017)
Non web-related
In the meantime, SNCF trains are late or pulled; connections missed are already enough stress, thanks
Taxis and public transport from where I live unreliable and you may never get started
PS June 25 2017
I travel reluctantly, and thiswill probably get worse. This year so far the following problems were web-related and maybe GAFA should work on this rather than making unemplyed the whole human race;
1. Are lingus does not really want you to change your booking over the web. So it has an option to do so that doesn't work and you have t phone them(Lost 3 hours; Feb 2017)
2. Irish Ferries does not really want you to change your booking over the web. So it has an option to do so that doesn't work and you have t phone them(Lost 3 hours; June 2017)
3. Allied Irish misspelled my name on my credit card. So neither Are lingus nor SNCF had a record of my booking (lost much time and meetingsMay 2017)
Non web-related
In the meantime, SNCF trains are late or pulled; connections missed are already enough stress, thanks
Taxis and public transport from where I live unreliable and you may never get started
