Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

what do you sell to an "immortal, sovereign quadrillionaire living in a vat"

that's easy - you arrest them and make them buy their freedom

corporations buy their way out of law-breaking every other day by paying fines, not one day served



you arrest them and make them buy their freedom

In the context of singularity sci-fi literature, the important question here is "How do you convince them to let you do that?", because a sufficiently advanced intelligence doesn't need your permission to do anything. It's like ants versus Toyota: you lack the mental capacity to see the breadth of the system which you're enmeshed in -- your moving around little grains of dirt doesn't even register at the smallest scales of operation of a multinational company. If you're thinking "the government could regulate the fleshy-AI-corporation-thingee to bits", you're playing the game so many levels below the AI that you very might well be one of his pieces and just not know it.

Some people would argue that is the status quo in the political system regarding regulation of megacorps. I'm close to agnostic on that.


The word "sovereign" in that description was not extraneous. In the story, these being tend to literally be countries, in the manner that a King used to be the country. You can't arrest them. They are the ones doing the arresting.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2026 batch! Applications are open till July 27.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: