[Script] The Sins of Silicon Valley - Act 1, Scene 6

 Scene 6 - Treason 

[Images of Jan 6]

VO: This only happened 

[Images of Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, Snap Chat, Apple and Google in Senate Committees with Company symbol]

VO: Because they helped make it happen.

Images of Countries, starting with Vietnam, China, Thailand, Australia, Russia, Brazil, India]

VO: We like to pretend that corporations are all powerful and too big to fail; and compared to some small nations.  But when a country threatens an American technology company with not being able to do business if they don’t provide tools for monitoring, censorship or spying on their own citizens as well as visitors from other nations within their borders.  

Images of Shakedown and the Mafia

VO: These companies have no choice but to comply.  The United States government has threatened American technology companies with regulatory pressure if they don't comply with political ends, and while the United States government isn't the worst abuser; imagine what it could do if things became more authoritarian in the United States. 

Image of Markets

VO: What we do know is that democracies are marketplaces of ideas, and when corporations are more concerned about milking their product (ie you) for as much profit as they can get that they actually risk your health and welfare, there is a severe problem.  The problem is, congress is slow to act, slow to understand and heavily influenced by corruption including the Tech Industry.  They spent X dollars in Y year; Z dollars in A year and T dollars in S year all so they could have your fine representatives sit down with them and bend their ear towards friendly legislation.

Images of Russia, Cambridge Analytica

VO: But there have been known instances of foreign agitprop in elections; very specific and very bad including Brexit and Cambridge Analytica, Hate Groups that were only shut down at the last possible minute and worse.  The valley loves to talk about free speech when it is refusing to decrypt your phone to the FBI, but all too willing to pull your account if a foreign government doesn't like what they’re saying.

Swamp Castle - Castles in the Air

Elery is chosen by the elves to learn magic among the poverty and squalor of Spielglass full of humans, but instead they treat her as a glorified pet.  As she learns the truth about herself, she has to get home wiht a little help.

Check out this episode!

[Script] The Sins of Silicon Valley - Act 1, Scene 5 Continued

 [Video of Mars and Earth in Orbit and Launch to Mars]

VO: Mars and Earth orbit the sun at different speeds.  That means at its closest, it can take about a year to get there; that’s what we consider the best launch window.  But when planning for the worst, you have to take into account the farthest, and at their farthest, it takes three whole years to get to Mars from Earth.  

[Images]

Calendars and 3 years.

VO: A LOT can happen in three years.  For example.

[Image of Andromeda Strain and finding life]

VO: Finding life in space is one of the holy grails of space exploration.  There are a lot of reasons for this; in particular if we find life there, whole new medicines and scientific breakthroughs could result.  Such a discovery will be worth billions and should be shared with the whole world.  

[Image pf Elon on a Pirate Flag, Lex Luthor and Otis on Otisberg but name changed to Elonburg.]

VO: But Elonburg will be a corporate town.  It doesn't matter what the government document says, it matters who owns the supply ships, the air, the water and the food of every man, woman and child in Elonburg.

[Images of Covid]

VO: In 2020, Elon thumbed his nose at California that asked him to initiate reasonable protections in his California plant.  Not only did Elon mock California and keep his plant open but then he threatened and actually did move his business to unregulated off the rails Texas.  So who is going to stand up to Elon on Mars?

[Image of Marvin the Martin and lines of infection from Mars to Earth and all over the Earth

VO: What if Elon doesnt believe that the virus is a threat and it gets lose? What if it comes from Mars to Earth and then gets all over Earth.  Such an alien virus could be easily killed by ours..or…it could be lethal and bypass our immune systems totally.  And what’s Earth going to about it if they are…THREE. YEARS. AWAY?

[Images of ???\

VO Of Ominous Silence

[Script] The Sins of Silicon Valley - Act 1, Scene 5

 [Images of Mars]

VO: Mars.  Its the next big step for man.  And its a BIG step.  Theres a reason we havent done it yet.  But now for the first time ever, it looks like we’re going to.

[Images of Elon]

VO: And its pretty cool.   This guy, Mr. Elon Mush, as of now the richest man in the world, has literally built science fiction reusable rockets to live his dream.

[Images of Space X and Tesla]

VO: First he conquers the unconquerable electric car, and then he wants us to go to Mars and has a million other projects.  The modern day Tony Stark.

[Images of Iron Man and Technoscience]

VO: If ever there was a positive face for technology and Silicon Valley, this South African immigrant is it; beating the odds again and again; making money from hard work, luck, panache and a ton of Chutzpa.

[Image on screen] But…

VO: But….there is a dark side to Elon.  We all know about it.  Well, anyone paying attention.

[Images of Elon’s Dark Side]

VO: The thing is, it isnt the petty snark that worries me.  And clearly the stupidest thing he’s ever done is seeking self publicity by suggesting a bunch of kids trapped in a cave can be rescued by his cave submarine. I mean seriously, a CAVE submarine?

[Images of Wile E Coyote]

VO: I mean, I cant but help of think more of this guy than Tony Stark…

[Images of Man who rescued kids]

VO: And this guy thought that it was a stupid idea too, because it was, but he said the quiet part out loud and the emperor realized he had no clothes and so Elon called the guy a pedophile.  Yeah, real mature Elon.  But that’s not what worries me most about this man and his dream.

Micronation - Chapter 15 - Planning and Execution

Watson and Amberlove take down the Cult of Innocence by using their own paranoia against them.

Check out this episode!

[Script] The Sins of Silicon Valley - Act 1, Scene 4 Continued

 Images of Phones and Boats]

Voice Over: Did you ever notice that you were talking about boats, and suddenly Facebook and Google start showing you ads about boats? Trips on boats, boats for sail? Toy boats?

[Images of Scientists]

Voice Over: Rumor had it facebook was listening in on your conversation and researchers checked to see if they were.  They aren’t.  Then again, if any company was big enough to stop research from getting out about whether or not your voice is feeding their ads…

[Images of Logos of the Tech Companies]

Voice Over: Its these guys.  But the thing is, those same researchers say that it might be something worse.  That these guys have already learned so much about you that they can just anticipate you talking about boats, and then show you ads about boats without even needing to talk to you.  Which is actually even creepier when you think about it.  We know that before some major leaks they were giving all kinds of information to the government without restrictions.  Then they supposedly locked up their data behind walls so secure that the government supposedly complained about how they couldnt listen to the bad guys anymore.

[Images of organized crime and terrorists]

Voice Over: The government said that it needed the companies to install a backdoor and get in.  Of course they were lying.  Pegasus and other companies are using malware that you cant even detect or stop on your phone to allow evil governments to kill journalists and whistleblowers.  And thats with them supposedly stopping the government from spying on you.  Who’s to say they wont change their mind and start using your phone to spy on you again….right now?

[Images of Tin Foil Hats]

[Script] The Sins of Silicon Valley - Act 1, Scene 4 - The Maginot Line

Scene 4 - The Maginot Line

[Image]

1926  [Black and white like a silent movie]

[Image]

The Maginot Line  [Black and white like a silent movie]

[Images] Diagrams and Plans and Photos of the Maginot Line

Voice Over: The Maginot Line was this enormous super bunker that the French constructed after WWI when it was obvious the Germans were violating the treaty.  They wanted assurances that their larger more powerful neighbor wasn’t going to just roll over them, and so they thought the way to go was not just trenches but SUPER air conditioned concrete hardened trenches.

[Video Footage of the Blitzkrieg]

Voice Over: That didn’t work out so well.  Technology and tactics have a way of evolving.  Fighting the last war, isn’t always the way to go.  The Maginot line fell to the Blitzkrieg and was completely crushed by the Nazi regime.

[Video Footage of Google and Facebook]

Voice Over: In 2017, Google and Facebook signed a secret deal to corner the ad industry because they knew that working together was more efficient than wasting resources as competitors.  Among other things, Google agreed to feed data to Facebook that was ‘anonymized’

[Video of Anonymization of Data]

Voice Over: The way this was supposed to work was that certain key data was removed like names and phone numbers, but other data was passed directly to Facebook.  Google also fights charges it has too much information by using advanced AI tools and anonymization so that humans can’t abuse it.

[Video of Mark Zuckerberg]

Voice Over: But this is Mark Zuckerberg.  We’ll speak more about him later.

[Video of Blitzkrieg and Puzzles]

Voice Over: But technology adapts.  Facebook and others can learn pieces about you by taking bits from their puzzle and matching them with third party databases and reverse engineering what they know.  Even the most advanced AI Maginot line in the world isn’t going to stop a clever human using social engineering against a stupid human that stands as gate keeper.

[Image of ????]

And that’s just what we know about.