Comment by indiantinker

17 days ago

Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them. Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965

31 comments

indiantinker

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chii  16 days ago

So why didn't this happen with electricity, water and food, but would with thinking capacity?

  • mrkeen  16 days ago

    > food

      Can you sell or share farm-saved seed?
  "It is illegal to sell, buy, barter or share farm-saved seed," warns Sam. [1]

  Can feed grain be sown?
  No – it is against the law to use any bought-in grain to establish a crop. [1]

  FTC sues John Deere over farmers' right to repair tractors
  The lawsuit, which Deere called "meritless," accuses the company of withholding access to its technology and best repair tools and of maintaining monopoly power over many repairs. Deere also reaps additional profits from selling parts, the complaint alleges, as authorized dealers tend to sell pricey Deere-branded parts for their repairs rather than generic alternatives. [2]

    [1] https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/the-dos-and-donts-of-farm-saved...

    [2] https://www.npr.org/2025/01/15/nx-s1-5260895/john-deere-ftc-...

  • midtake  16 days ago

    What do you mean? This is very much true. We are economically compelled to buy food from supermarkets, for instance, because hunting and fishing have become regulated, niche activities. Compared to someone from the 1600s who could scoop a salmon out of the river with a bucket, we are quite oppressed.

    • woah  16 days ago

      Most people lived on the knife's edge of starvation before the application of fossil fuel energy and nitrogen to agriculture in the 20th century. That's why the global population exploded after the introduction of these technologies. Read "Energy and Civilization" by Vaclav Smil. For most of history, it was an open question the crops you grew would even contain more calories than the physical effort it took to grow them. This means you were spending ~90% of your time (or money if you were in a specialized trade) just on getting enough carbs in grain to avoid keeling over. And, your diet was 90% grain with almost no variety.

      Were there a lucky few who found an unoccupied niche where there was some surplus for a generation or two? Sure. But pretending like this was commonplace is like pretending that everyone in the 1600's was a nobleman.

      > Compared to someone from the 1600s who could eat a gourmet meal prepared by their 10 cooks every night, we are quite oppressed.

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  • Cthulhu_  16 days ago

    These are regulated by governments that, at least for now, are still working for the people. They're some of the first that get attacked and taken away when said government fails though, or when another government invades.

    (ex: Palestine got their utilities and food cut off so that thousands starved, Ukraine's infrastructure is under attack so that thousands will die from exposure, and that's after they went for their food exports, starving more that people that depended on it)

  • tomnipotent  16 days ago

    > electricity, water and food

    Wars are frequently fought of these three things, and there's no shortage of examples of the humans controlling these resources lording over those that did not.