They are the G-6 from Silicon Valley who entered our lives without anyone lifting a finger to at least limit, for the good of all, their lust for power or even somehow circumscribe the control they exercise over our ailing globalized planet. . Bill Gates, Steve Jobs (died in 2011); Mark Zuckerberg; Jeff Bezos; Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Elon Musk. The new masters of the universe.
His rise has been meteoric, his wealth fabulous, his ambition unbridled. Unlike the solemn philanthropic tycoons of a century ago in top hats and cigars, the Rockerfellers, Carnegie, Morgan..., the boys of Silicon Valley go to the beach and country. Instead of hardware - oil, industry, railways, steel - they are software dealers, with the exception of Musk, who in addition to taking over Twitter, makes cars and rockets and other such gadgets; or Bezos, the cosmic grocer. They know more about us than we do. And to think that they have only just begun!
But in addition to having a dark face, these companies are far from impeachable, as has been made clear by the infiltration of Russian toll and bot networks, with thousands of false users spreading fake news in order to influence the results of the presidential elections of none other than the United States of America.
For years now, a cyber war has been waged worldwide in which hackers for hire or cyber mercenaries without scruples or homeland stand out.
They go to sack, they go for all. It is enough for them to find a loophole in the security systems of a country or a city to launch lightning attacks against their transport and communications networks, or attack energy sources, going through infiltrating basic sectors, such as health , education or defense.
The ordinary citizen is not always aware of what is happening on their computer or mobile. But at least he exercises, knowingly or not, as a collaborator in this relentless war in which both uninhibited propaganda and more than malicious misinformation abound, not to mention hoaxes through a tube. As a consequence of this, the feeling of vulnerability, uncertainty, and fear is increasing, which is what contributes so much to the polarization of society and the rise of disastrous populist political movements.
And to think that in their beginnings the smiling and carefree boys of Silicon Valley led us to believe that they gave us absolute freedom of expression, as well as unlimited access to all the accumulated knowledge of humanity, with politicians being some of their first and most enthusiastic victims. , who are now his hostages. It is said that scabies do not itch with pleasure, and after giving ourselves over to the designs of these magnates, it is of little use for us now to complain.
But not satisfied with appropriating technological advances developed with public money, which is the case, without going any further, of the Internet, these predators unceremoniously gobble up any startup that they consider moderately interesting, thus limiting competition and possible technological advances, in addition to various fields of knowledge, including medicine. What's more: they are rather reluctant when it comes to paying their taxes.
In short, we have given them everything, while they, capricious and conceited, can leave us with nothing at any moment, as has happened with the thousands of Twitter employees that Musk has fired without thinking twice.
