THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX IS PERHAPS BEST VISUALIZED BY THE SO-CALLED IRON TRIANGLE (SEE P. 5). WIKIMEDIA/DOUG BOWMAN/CUBIC SPACE DIVISION HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/ BY/2.0/DEED.EN.

September 2020

Iron Triangles and Techno-Feudalism

One of the consequences of Iron Triangles is oligarchy, and decisions being made in the interest of a ruling clique, and not in the national interest. The problem when governance, regulation, and taxation is weak, and special interest groups that are supposed to be governed, regulated, and taxed grow over-powerful, is what we are calling techno-feudalism. With techno-feudalism, what is paid and permitted in a digital space is decided by asymmetric power, not mutual consent. Political approval for funding priorities, education programs and regulation all favor Big Tech. We need stronger governance and professional organizations like the IEEE to resist the rise of an analogous transnational techno-feudalism.

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