Before this is closed / unlisted as off-topic or some other questionable reason, I’d like to emphasize that this is related to Francesca Bria’s Euro Stack Project, and that digital sovereignty is very much on topic for FOSS projects and their community.
Isn’t the fact that this documents the role of Anduril, the company in which one of the re-elected* SC members works, in this general post-democratic ecosystem, sufficient to consider this link on topic?
*re-elected despite 159 voters (more than a third of the expressed ballots) ranking him last on their ballot
Of course, I guess it’s a slippery slope toward a purely political and off-topic discussion, but this, at least, gives some useful information in the more general discussion of whether Anduril should be banned from this community entirely (beyond the current status-quo which seems to be to ban them from job-posting and from conference-sponsoring)…
This is a great example of a very to the point article, and an excellent usage of charts to convey information. Very cool!
One thing I do feel it misses in its narrative is a more holistic view of the European side of this. E.g. the examples of “sovereign” European defense startups that emerge, often outside of the ideological influences of Thiel/Land/Yarvin, but still copying some of the rhetoric and playbook of e.g. Karp and Luckey around challenging “encumbered defense primes”.
Also surprised to learn that Helsing/Anduril have “partnered” in the German governments deep-strike drone program. Not sure it can be considered an actual partnership however. But I’m assuming details of all this are still emerging and the press is catching up.
Also I didn’t really get the GovCloud connection immediately, or the relation to Meta and such. Not saying it’s not there, but I do think there is a big difference between the more ideological fraction of the LOTR inspired companies and the more classical tech types at the FAANG/MANGO companies that seem more interested the profits side than the ideology of Dark Enlightenment patchworks and NRx accelerationism.
Agreed (as far as I can tell from over here).
Yes. and FWIW, my understanding from talking to non Palantir/Anduril people (e.g. US government employees) is that this part is basically true here.
I would say that whether or not it is Anduril, Rheinmetall is going to want some partner to get their drone software going. So there is a void that will be filled; the question is just who (and from what continent) will fill it, and whether they be using Nix.
i find it notable the ideological justification behind this stack mostly relies on the necessity of geopolitical conflict, so that would seem like one vector from which to erode support for this whole thing.
(that commercial arm similarly leans on defense/AI/crypto, the other two of which seem bubbles.)
cough He is a really fine man cough
I mean, who hasn’t co-hosted a fundraiser for a presidential candidate to dismantle democracy? I am sure most of us have done that. /S
even presuming this position: the road to hell is paved with good intentions
Yeah one just knows it’s going to be a great show when the right-wing Americans start out by ranting about standing desks.
Not sure if democracy was ever achieved in the USA or those systems seeking communism given the USA ongoing resistance to the civil rights movement, electoral college system, gerrymandering practices, etc. Granted, the described concentration of power using technology and claims of efficiency is an interesting twist.
Not sure if democracy was ever achieved in the USA
Actually, it really depends how “democracry” gets defined.
And I believe that trying to reduce it to a formula over an arbitrary set of criteria prevents meaningful discussions about the political situation.
Like many things in life, one should see it more like a spectrum than as an on-off switch.
i.e. It’s more helpful to analyse “who can make impactful decisions”, “how are legitimacy and responsibility delegated”, or “how the information landscape supports or prevents debate”, etc. rather than the means by which so called representatives get their position(s).
The EIU democracy index seems like a good attempt to explore that spectrum:
What if these underlying questions are inherently political, and The Economist’s attempt to quantify things ends up hiding that?
@Pamplemousse’s take might well better do this reality justice.
I think it is also noteworthy here that The Economist is a for-profit entity – if not one whose primary business has a target audience where investors are over-represented, compared to the general population. This would inherently bias the outlet in favor of the (neo)liberal flavor of democracies, even though such bias might not necessarily be in the best interest of the broader populace.