The Unbearable Monopolization of Being

Lot’s of links to explore.

Societal inequality has driven political change and led to politians like Alexandria
Ocasio-Ortez. It may have similarly seismic effects in technology, too. There will come a time
where people grow sick of their lives being enclosed into a monopoly stack, where rent must be paid
to a growing set of private companies in order to simply go about one’s day. At that time, a new set
of technologies and services will become desirable: collaborative, open platforms that support
ecosystems, rather than zero-sum wealth silos. In these ecosystems, companies work together in order
to build a better ecosystem for everybody’s use, in alignment with their users.

It’s telling that this sounds hopelessly utopian in today’s environment — but it’s coming. These
products and services are being founded today, and people are working on them right now. The only
question is whether we’ll be ready for them.

I’d rather be working on it now than just getting ready.