I wrote this piece back in 2016. At the time, I was concerned by the way humans self-organize into predatory entities. Of course, these entities are "alive," consisting of living humans. But in the big picture, these entities exhibit their own life. In my terminology, back then, they were "dragons." It's 2024. Time for an update. There is a "flip side" to this theory. It's about how humans are assimilated into this machine. It turns out that assimilation is easier for most of us to understand since intelligent machines are (for most of us) a subject of Science Fiction ("AI"). In fiction, "AI" is presented for dramatic purposes as something super-human and implacably opposed to human life. "Real" AI is something else entirely. It presents a real and present threat precisely because it is poorly understood. Most of us are familiar with the concept of assimilation. We take it for granted that "social" animals fo...

It may be said that whether or not a corporation is "alive" is a matter of definition. I find it quite easy to make the necessary adjustments. But we are still left with our doubts about the analogy. We expect a living thing to be "like" us - especially to have something we call consciousness. Consciousness is a slippery idea. For most of us, it refers to the experience we have of inhabiting the world. It is subtly connected to the phenomenon of attention . A vast amount of my behaviour is obviously controlled by my brain but not in a conscious way (I don't need to think about how to walk down the street, drive a car or decipher letter patterns while I read). Consciousness (attention) is about what I do need to "think about". This distinction is made in " The Ravenous Brain ", a very readable source for those looking for an update on the current status of research into how the brain works. In summary, the function of "attention" or ...

In  Swimming With the Sharks , Joris Lewindijk  provides a stellar inside look at the "City", London's financial industry. His work is remarkable in that he manages to tease out the differences between matters on a human scale and what happens to the system as a whole. He focuses on "perverse incentives", a key mechanism of "assimilation" whereby ordinary people surrender their humanity to the impersonal machinery of the investment banks. The book should be read with "The Real World of Technology", which describes the phenomenon of assimilation in an industrial society in general (not just banking). "Swimming" is a modern classic, to be compared with "The Corporation". At its heart we see acceptance of the fallacy: money as a proxy for value. "Swimming" presents the clearest case I know of how the "Dragon" created by the common efforts of very smart people takes on a life of its own. But the whole is s...

The Web is buzzing with cannon shots at the "evil corporations", fired by the twin Generals of the Generalization: Bernie Sanders and Chris Hedges. OK, so what's the plan? Abolish corporations? Seriously? Lets face it, we need some way to organize people and capital to get things done, even small things like building a sidewalk. It's not the "corporation" that are the issue - it's the way they are treated as people with rights. Big mistake. Generally speaking, a "person" created by a bunch of real people results in a "person" with intelligence of the lowest common denominator and ethics of a sewer rat. This "person" is a psychopath and should not be granted any rights at all. When we granted the "right" of free speech to corporations, we admitted a 100 ton gorilla to the legislature. That gorilla buys votes with the money taken out of the salaries of its employees, or added to the prices it charges to its customer...