The Centralization of Technology

by jon 2024-7-25
Someone finally said it.  The thing that I've been talking about for a while now.
 
When I woke up this morning, I pondered what I could write a few words about.  The inspiration came, "big company, big tech."  But I wasn't sure what this meant.
 
When I sat down today to look at the news, The Epoch Times had this article:
 
 
That is exactly what I've been thinking and warning others about.
 
Inside the article we hear from Robert Thomas, the owner of 180A Consulting, which is a cybersecurity company.  In my view, he hits the nail on the head:
 
“We’re reaching the point where over-centralization makes us less ‘healable,’ and less resilient,” Mr. Thomas said. “We’re losing our resiliency as a nation.”
 
Notice his use the of the word "centralization", in contrast with resilient and healable.
 
Although the United States' strength came through private ownership and laws protecting capital which allowed enterprise, we hit critical mass in some sectors, namely technology.
 
That is not to say that there isn't a lot of technology companies out there.  However, there is a heavy and very connected reliance to just a few main players.  You know who they are.
 
For some reason, when a small company grows into a big company, many times they decide that their staff and their ability to manage hardware is too expensive and not sufficient.  They then decide to go all in with the cloud.  Sending their problem to somebody else.  Many times, this somebody is a central authority, such Amazon's AWS, Microsoft's Azure, or Google's Cloud.
 
Listen, I've seen AWS bills that would rack up over $1 million.  But that's the not the issue here, is it?  Rather, the issue is: centralization.  Increased cost was just a symptom.
 
I came up with a phrase about a year or so ago: Where do you want the power, money, and influence to go?  If you have you concerns about the actions of big tech companies, then I suspect you would have no problem giving big tech more power, more money, and more influence.  Their solutions have pinpointed what individuals and companies need, prioritized them, and provided solutions for them.
 
However, if you are concerned about the direction of big tech companies, then you might consider sending your money elsewhere.  Are your needs prioritized the same way that big tech has decided they should be?  Divert the power from them, divert the money from them, divert the influence from them.
 
Why not empower a variety of players that have your own values?
 
Til next time.