I've been thinking of control

Incredible things are happening. Out of nowhere, alien intelligences have arrived. We have machines that can think.

In the previous era of the internet, data was the way in which companies and governments encroached upon individuals.

The people who kept saying "I have nothing to hide" did not realize how it was not (just) about losing privacy but about losing control. The movies they were recommended, the videos they were shown, the posts they were served, the people they were pitched - each a silent nudge until vast sections of society ended up being algorithmically controlled. Each of us became a point in a multi-dimensional database, ready to be served to the highest bidder, to be manipulated by the sharpest tricks that psychology has to offer.

But we didn't give up. It was in that era…