Too Much Power For One Man • Hacker News Board

Re: Too Much Power For One Man

#21

Post by michaelfeathers » Sun, Jul 13, 2014, 3:15 PM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #15

blibble wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Larry and Sergey control 55% of the voting rights: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2014/04/02/google-sto... if the rest of the shareholders don't agree with them they can... do absolutely nothing about it

I actually don't worry too much about them. It's if/when these massive tech companies go bankrupt and monopolistic control crudely goes to the highest bidder (likely some leveraged buyout organization) that I worry about.

This.

We've already seen a number of cases where technology that was originally royalty-free or open source becomes encumbered after sale of a company.

Theoretically, companies that want to "do good" could put IP and data in a separate trust, but that's kind of like throwing away money you might need when times are tough.

I remember people saying "but Sun would never.." before Sun was acquired. Oracle has been a decent caretaker, but I doubt that (for instance) that anyone ever imagined that there would ever be a need to fork Hudson.

The takeaway for all of us is - Don't trust assurances of companies about their assets unless they have taken steps to protect them independently.

Re: Too Much Power For One Man

#22

Post by maddev » Sun, Jul 13, 2014, 3:19 PM UTC

nmrm wrote: post #2

Eh. This article emphasizes the wrong things. Larry Page isn't some super villain building robot armies to take over the world. Any significant harm he/Google might do to the world will likely be via the unintended consequences of actions motivated primarily by profit. We already see this -- the slow erosion of privacy expectations, etc. As for all of the internet of things/robotics acquisitions and R&D... well, I'm…

> the slow erosion of privacy expectations, etc.

> slow

SLOW?????? More like super-sonic.

Re: Too Much Power For One Man

#23

Post by cybdestroyer » Sun, Jul 13, 2014, 3:20 PM UTC

What was the point of this awfully written collection of words? Also, could someone contact the author and let him know of the existence of Microsoft Word? His contact link is broken and he has way too many typos to be in the front page of Hacker News.

Re: Too Much Power For One Man

#24

Post by JoeAltmaier » Sun, Jul 13, 2014, 3:26 PM UTC

spindritf wrote: post #19

I’m not saying that Page is going to abuse his power. I am saying that he could. And do what? Be specific. Read my e-mails? The constant fear of corporations has been puzzling me ever since I saw RoboCop. Back then at least it was tied to the fear of rising Japan who contributed to the world war not too long before. The tech companies on the other hand have to be some of the most meek and least abusive organizations…

Corporations may not be deliberately evil, but they are gorillas in the room with money and influence. Every time they turn around, someone gets hurt somewhere. So folks fear them, and rightly so.

Re: Too Much Power For One Man

#25

Post by azakai » Sun, Jul 13, 2014, 3:33 PM UTC

domiono wrote: post #18

It's not a question if someone with too much power will abuse that power. It always happens, always. It's not a question of if it will happen or not, it's a question of when and under what circumstances. That's why we have the division of power in governments, that's why we have countries, because too much power concentrated by too few individuals will always get abused. If not by the individuals themselves, someone…

Yes. The problem is that while we have division of power in governments, there is little stopping private enterprise from accumulating worrying amounts of power. There is antitrust law, which in theory should be the solution, but in practice is hardly applied in modern times.

Re: Too Much Power For One Man

#26

Post by tlwr » Sun, Jul 13, 2014, 3:36 PM UTC

hosay123 wrote: post #17

mden wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it nice how you can make most things sound evil if you just use the right wording. What you wrote reminds me of cases where law enforcement takes terms like "subversion" used by an engineer and extrapolates evil plots out of them.

Which wording do you speak of? About the only loading used here is "Lex", which was borrowed from the article. The remainder is a fairly plain depiction of reality

"spyware"?

Re: Too Much Power For One Man

#27

Post by izolate » Sun, Jul 13, 2014, 3:42 PM UTC

I've always got the impression that Sergey Brin is the true visionary of the two.

Re: Too Much Power For One Man

#28

Post by hosay123 » Sun, Jul 13, 2014, 3:44 PM UTC

tlwr wrote: post #26

hosay123 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which wording do you speak of? About the only loading used here is "Lex", which was borrowed from the article. The remainder is a fairly plain depiction of reality

"spyware"?

Wikipedia:

> Spyware is software that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge and that may send such information to another entity without the consumer's consent, or that asserts control over a computer without the consumer's knowledge.

Save me the boring arguments about how regular people who can barely work a toaster can still somehow magically elect to avoid Analytics using browser plugins and editing their hosts file

Re: Too Much Power For One Man

#29

Post by g123g » Sun, Jul 13, 2014, 4:02 PM UTC

I am pretty sure there is a much larger vision behind all these seemingly disjoint acquistions and ventures. One day when the final piece is put together, we mere mortals will realize what is happening behind the scenes right now. But it might be too late by then.

Re: Too Much Power For One Man

#30

Post by jqm » Sun, Jul 13, 2014, 4:03 PM UTC

..."But by the end, Lex Luther spent his final years fighting off increasing government regulation and a growing mass of lawsuits while trying to keep his company from succumbing to bureaucratic rot and his employees innovative. The good employees kept jumping ship while the mediocre ones were proving impossible to dislodge. He eventually died in a bizarre yacht accident involving a prostitute, several chickens and some ketamine, having failed to maintain his dominance of the world. He was replaced by a guy with an MBA from Stanford who had very straight teeth and that said all the right things at the right time and who slowly ran the company into the ground by selling off divisions one after the other in order to meet annual bonus growth profit targets."