Imagine if Dear Leader didn't just make the trains run on time, but also used facial recognition technology to identify every passenger as they boarded...
Plus an AI program to analyze every public statement and social media post that each passenger had made....
And robotic drones to assassinate those he didn't like before they reached home, in the full knowledge that he had court-backed presidential immunity to do so.
Now imagine that two or three years from now, the only false part of that scenario is the notion that Dear Leader made the trains run on time. Mussolini never did. And the Musk-Trump regime won't either. (Although, as Mussolini did with trains, they will certainly take credit for all the economic strength—a healthy jobs market, low inflation, and manufacturing boom—they inherited.)
But punishing enemies—and using technology to: a) do it, and b) hide their tracks will certainly be possible.
AI systems are advancing so rapidly that some leading executives of AI companies, such as... Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO and a prominent Trump backer, believe AI may become smarter than humans by 2026... such advances could have far-reaching implications for national security, the economy, and the global balance of power.
Trump is already poised to rescind Biden's 2023 Executive Order on AI—which foolishly hoped to ensure that AI's development was "safe, secure and trustworthy."
And Trump seems more than willing to give Elon whatever regulatory control he wants over the development of technologies—such as AI and advanced robotics—that Trump's feeble brain will never understand.
Other tech-fascists are, of course, coming along for the ride, including the world's most accomplished tracker of US citizens, Peter Thiel, and the best reason to get off Substack, Marc Andreessen.
As Vox notes:
Trump’s supporters include members of the accelerationist tech right, led by the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who are fiercely opposed to regulation of an exciting new industry.
Elon, of course, comes to his new role as Shadow President with his own enemies list, including Reuters and others who expose his wrongdoings, along a proven willingness to break whatever laws get in his way—and a promise from Trump that he can sit at the tiny desk whenever he wants.
Online, the racists, rapists and misogynists may be rejoicing at Trump's triumph.
Meanwhile, Musk and the "anti-woke" tech billionaires who want to not just deport immigrants and control women, but dominate the world, will be pulling strings behind the scenes in an effort to reshape society in ways that will be hard to reverse.
It's not just fascism and climate change anymore. It's also the reality that the rapid, potentially exponential acceleration of AI capabilities could propel us into a future we're not ready for.
In the wrong hands, AI can be a tool for all kinds of Big Brother abuses and devastating military and cyberwarfare uses. Even in the “right hands,” AI will cause tremendous economic disruption and job displacement. Up to and including the potential to make human labor obsolete.
Clearly, we should not give Trump, tech titans, thugs, corrupt judges, and Christian Nationalists the power to fully dictate what happens to our lives, our bodies, and our world.
Trump (and his advisers) have plenty of world leaders—past and present—to take notes from. Including the likes of Putin and Netanyahu, men so criminal and corrupt they make it impossible to separate their personal motives from their political acts—up to and including the use of wars and invasions to distract from domestic leadership failures.
New technologies—combined with corrupt and selfish motivations—will make it easier than ever for a global coalition of rich white men to lock in our current economic imbalances and power structures, especially in the US, where income inequality has long been at a level that would have previously caused citizens to revolt.
At the same time, a second Trump administration will have more tools than ever at its disposal to manipulate, monitor and overwhelm the population as the Christian Nationalists are fully unleashed to enact and enforce their Project 2025 agenda.
Resistance may have been effective in the first Trump term.
Next time, it may be futile.
The future of fascism is here.
It's not just Tom Homan, Stephen Miller, and Kristi Noem we need to be afraid of.
It's the Nerd Reich who are coming for us all.
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P.S. This really is the time to get off X once and for all. Please find me on Bluesky and these other places.
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