We are Focused on the Wrong Problems!

July 6, 2026

1:13

Here's something that might surprise you — most of the focus around AI isn’t on how powerful it’s becoming, but on how corporations and governments are actually deploying it. According to /u/CyborgWriter, the real danger isn’t just AI’s capabilities, but how it’s being used to gather and control our personal data — especially our brains. Big data centers aren’t just about AI — they’re about creating infrastructure to map and measure our cognitive output, effectively valuing us based on how much we think and behave. This means environmental nudging and algorithmic management could make protests and dissent impossible. Now, here’s where it gets even more alarming — this shifts the social contract so much that our power as citizens gets flattened. CyborgWriter warns that relying on big tech or even government-backed ownership — like proposals from figures like Bernie Sanders — is a trap. Instead, they suggest decentralizing AI through open-source, locally hosted systems. If we don’t, we risk falling into a new kind of techno-feudalism, where a few powerful entities control everything. The question is — how do we regain leverage in this new world?

Most of the focus is on AI being bad rather than how major companies are deploying AI. My concern isn't that AI is becoming more powerful. I mean, that is a concern, of course, but since most of the implications are speculative, you can't exactly take any stance or action on that problem other than countries coming together and setting rules and policies for how they distribute and use frontier models and capabilities, especially in warfare.

My largest concern is what corporations and governments will use AI for on their own citizens. The data center builds are not just about AI. They're about creating an infrastructure that allows for total brain capital capturing. In other words there are real plans in place for collecting as much data as possible on our individual brains and if they can accurately map all of that out, they can measure how much and the quality of cognitive output we're providing to the state, which means they can valuate our worth based on cognitive outputs. Furthermore, they can use environmental nudging and algorithmic management to modify and shape individual behavior, which means protesting or voicing any concerns becomes obsolete.

Big picture: The social contract between government, citizen, and business is being radically re-shaped for a world where regular people have little to no leveraging power, which destroys the power of voice. This is why we shouldn't destroy AI. Rather, we should figure out ways to ween ourselves off of the dependency we have on major tech companies so that we can gain leveraging power back, again.

The biggest mistake is taking the bribes like what Bernie Sanders and Ro Kana are suggesting. I have nothing against them or anything, but their proposal to have the federal government own stock in big tech companies is a disaster in the making. If that happens, forget about any manageable evolution towards a better future. You'll be fighting the federal government who will be working on behalf of major tech companies because to not do so, means their ability to fund themselves will go flat.

This is a huge trap that we're walking into, which is why the AI community must look towards de-centralized open-source systems that can be locally hosted for deploying and using AI at scale. If we rely too much on a few major corporations, we'll have entered a techno-feudalistic system where powers greater than you will be able to do just about anything with impunity. We can't let that happen!