Extinction by Optimization: Tech Monopolies and the South Korea Trajectory

The complexity of modern digital infrastructure—like Google’s maintenance of the open-source Chromium engine—has made traditional antitrust actions obsolete. Instead of breaking up monopolies, the U.S. government is actively merging with Big Tech to form a "Digital Zaibatsu" designed to out-compete China in an AI and semiconductor arms race. While this state-corporate fusion guarantees short-term geopolitical and technological supremacy, it optimizes society purely for corporate efficiency rather than human flourishing, trapping the U.S. on a trajectory toward the same demographic collapse currently unfolding in South Korea.