By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 24/07/2026None of these stories are plausible, which raises an urgent question: why have the world's wealthiest investors been so eager to hand over *trillions* to finance this bubble? 12/ 235928
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 24/07/2026I have previously written about one reason that billionaires find the AI story so compelling: at root, many billionaires just don't believe most other people are actually, fully real. How could they? Achieving billionairehood requires that you inflict pain on vast numbers of people. 13/ 6923231
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 24/07/2026If you truly believed that those people were as real as you are, you'd never be able to look yourself in the mirror. 14/ 140318
James Bottomley @jamesbottomley.bsky.social · 25/07/2026They are seeking to become a new class of feudal overlords, with us as the serfs. The current situation is very similar to that of earlier creations of extreme aristocracies from history, like the Norman barons, or the Russian Tsars. 060
Dark Sky Country @mydeadhorsenow.bsky.social · 24/07/2026I remember playing GTA Vice City and, as you do, sometimes you have to shoot an electronic LEO. As I trained my pistol on it, Tommy says "You're not real, your a robot!" That's when young me realized, "Oh, I'm playing a psychopath simulator." 0192
Michael LeRoux @rouleau36.bsky.social · 25/07/2026I don't know about being real, but they are certainly lesser. 000
David Beard @dabeard.bsky.social · 25/07/2026i guess that to become a trillionaire, you have to kill hundreds of thousands of the world’s poorest people. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/o...nytimes.comOpinion | U.S.A.I.D. Cuts Killed People. That’s the Truth.Musk insists that his demolition of humanitarian aid didn’t cost lives. So I propose he take a trip with me. 39331
gwpda.bsky.social @gwpda.bsky.social · 25/07/2026The status of 'billionaire' isn't an actual thing. It's too close to bleaching ones hair blonde or being a conman - there's no inherent quality or attribute connected to wealth. 030
