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   myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Saturday, 30-Nov-2024 01:38:59 JST myrmepropagandist

   Introducing a new phrase via my brother "digital feudalism" -- this is the use of technological power to control platforms and flows of information.

   For example, if everyone is using your social media app to get news (and most people now get their news on social media) you could throttle news that is harmful to you and promote news that helps your political goals.

   This could, in theory, be done in ways that would be hard to prove that is happening, although currently it's out in the open.

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     Wyatt H Knott (whknott@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 01-Dec-2024 00:16:46 JST Wyatt H Knott

     in reply to

     @futurebird The real power of the feudal world was not so much that they controlled a powerful military - all leaders through time have done that. The thing that always strikes me about the feudal era (and to some extent to England today) is how much of the natural world the state directly owned and controlled. The kings owned ALL the land. ALL the animals. ALL the minerals. ANYTHING that needed doing, including producing enough food to survive, had to be done through the approval of monarchs.

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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Sunday, 01-Dec-2024 00:16:48 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     During real feudalism technology such as armor and steel weapons along with training could make a knight or solider dangerous enough that a dozen angry peasants could do little to stop him.

     Knights had petty power, due to their proximity to the real power of kings and nobility. Sometimes a king might know how to use a sword, but the most powerful kings did not. They knew how to secure the loyalty of knights.

     Does this translate to the digital realm?

     Rich Felker repeated this.
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     Brian Anderson (He/Him) (btanderson@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 01-Dec-2024 00:23:29 JST Brian Anderson (He/Him)

     in reply to

     @futurebird recent claims by certain platforms that they actually own the user accounts associated with a certain bankrupt slanderer certainly feel feudalistic in nature…

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     mmby (mmby@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 08:03:15 JST mmby

     in reply to

     @futurebird which is possible because the system converges to monopoly

     personal loyalty of feudalism is replaced by brand loyalty

     lands are the markets and fortresses the walled gardens. the subsidiaries trying to claim monopoly in their respective domains

     are the accelerationists the clergy?

     alcinnz repeated this.
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     myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 08:03:15 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • mmby

     @mmby When the universe of blogs was killed off by centralized social media that was basically the enclosure of the commons.

     I never realized how threatened some people must have felt by that impossible to control ecosystem of information. I underestimated how they would work to kill it and to keep it dead. I let myself believe the idea that “information wants to be free”

     Sure, Jan. But, there are people who want it controlled.