Why Microsoft Is Being Turned Away From "Spiritual Opium" Through Antitrust Policy & Needs To Back An American Biobank
Microsoft needs to invest in doorways to drive the next round of growth for Azure.
The true history of Microsoft has never really been told though there are hints of it all over the place if you care to look.
Attorney Tim Hogan reveals some of that hidden history in a tweet the other day.
Hogan’s other postings make clear that he’s tied into the American security apparatus.
This makes sense because…
eAntitrust policy is really national security. Repeat after me: “Antitrust policy is really national security.”
For what it’s worth I think we observe that capitalism naturally tends toward monopoly and nowhere is this seemingly the case than with tech companies, which have, in recent years, been steathily taken over by the deep state.
Careful readers of this Substack already know that we’ve focused on how Nick Clegg is the new leader of Meta after defenestrating the wicked Sheryl Sandberg and we have observed, much as our Russian friends have, that Google is crawling with ex-intelligence people.
Apple, too, with its renewed focus outside of China and its anti-ad tech stance, is seemingly also moving in that deep state direction. This is, I think, how Americans do nationalization and I more or less support it — though I think such a process, if not carefully managed, can lead to stagnation.
Still, if we are to be saddled with monopolies, we might ask if such firms can become national champions — if they can use their vast profits to make life better for the countries which birthed them.
A national champion is born when a monopoly wraps itself in the flag and serves some national priority.
Let’s be clear eyed about this. Microsoft is a 1.846T company with revenues exceeding $168 billion in 2021. Surely we could come up with something more imaginative than buying video games.
So no, I do not support the $69 billion Activision deal with Microsoft currently under review in more than a dozen countries. Not only does it enrich some very dangerous and disturbed people like Bobby Kotick, backed as he is by alleged mobster Steve Wynn, but it also threatens to exploit some of the most vulnerable among us who are too addicted to video games to stop.
I believe video games are a form of “spiritual opium” and ought to be severely curtailed in American life — much as they increasingly are in other parts of the world.
Microsoft’s initial successes came from making people more productive, not less, and it should return to its roots. The names for their products bely the obvious: Microsoft is about human productivity: “Windows” and “Microsoft Works.” Microsoft is a doorway and there aren’t many of those. Microsoft should try to make more doorways.
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That would logically mean getting rid of the boondoggle of OpenAI, which it seems may soon come under legal review anyway right as OpenAI arguably steals from software developers.
Microsoft invested some $1B in OpenAI with precious little to show for it. It’s long been my view that OpenAI is an intellectual cul de sac. Its offerings are meager and its revenues next to nonexistent.
Could it be that OpenAI is designed to suck in all the attention and divert it away from other projects that could be societally beneficial? Biology, combined with artificial intelligence, is where the Chinese are going — not weird GPT-3 projects which will help you make Greta Thornberg look like Gollum hilarious though that is.
No, the real riches are in unkind games being turned into kind games, or if you like, the probabilistic world of biology moving into the deterministic one of manufacturing. For $1B, Microsoft could have built an American biobank and made itself into the forerunner of the biotechnology revolution. I’d be happy to advise such a project for Google, for Amazon or for Microsoft. The genetics revolution needs one of these companies to help drive down costs still further.
Once it becomes clear how bad an idea it is to buy Activision, the real change at Microsoft should be its leadership. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s time has come and gone.
Might I suggest Peggy Johnson, the former Microsoft executive, who, against all odds, turned around Magic Leap? Johnson also has close ties with the Saudis and their Public Investment Fund. Maybe after all the problems Saudi has had they could help the genetics revolution?
I know how they’ll pay for it!
Biden should say, “I’m going to build a biobank… and Saudi Arabia [and the Emirates] will pay for it.]