Here’s how Amazon’s Bezos with Kuiper will control digital life
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has given the green light to Amazon's Project Kuiper. Facts, comments and scenarios in the study by Umberto Rapetto
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in recent days has given its "ok" and the much feared Project Kuiper can turn into reality.
The FCC's approval of Jeff Bezos' ambitious (for him) and worrying (for us) project marks a moment of extreme criticality not only in the panorama of technological evolution but also and above all in the political and economic scenario of the planet.
A real constellation of satellites (three thousand and two hundred and thirty-six to be precise) is destined to obscure the sky like the arrows of the Persians at Thermopylae and the wish – for the sake of democracy – is that this historical parallel is inauspicious.
The formal objective is to ensure the "coverage" of the Internet connection in areas of the American continent otherwise difficult or even impossible to reach with the "normal" connection systems available up to now.
Users of those desolate territories due to the isolation that Mother Nature has established orographically will finally have the opportunity to surf the Net and communicate like those who live in the most avant-garde metropolitan contexts. Too bad that to do so they have to hand over their hands and feet to Amazon, offering even the most infinitesimal activity done to the computer connected online in total transparency.
The $ 10 billion investment (which I don't understand was not made by a non-profit government agency) will result in total control of the digital life of those who take advantage of the Internet access opportunity that rains, yes, since heaven but it might be no less fatal than nuclear fallout.
Amazon, which already has visceral visibility on the consumption and habits of citizens, will be able to "see" the traffic of any user and – if necessary – will be able to convey it to commercially profitable destinations for its business. The old book seller (to whom we owe both the easy retrieval of any volume and the asphyxiation or even the closure of the bookstores under the house) has progressively conquered the market for all kinds of products, condemning shops and shops to death (without any association of category, even here in Italy, has never committed itself to effectively counteract such a phenomenon), stripping the local economies, transforming even the neighborhoods into dormitories where the commercial vocation also triggered the corresponding sociality between people.
Now the colossus of Jeff Bezos is overwhelmingly overlooking the tlc stage and nobody talks about it. Someone will say that the Kuiper project is aimed at the US area, but those who do not sleep standing up (here and in Europe) know perfectly well that the satellites are not immovable masonry works and that, in any case, those 3,236 just approved can simply multiply to the grow the investment.
I tried to express these not so strange concerns of mine just a year ago on Start Magazine. The request for authorization was presented, the outcome of which we know today. On 24 July 2019 the newspaper directed by Michele Arnese titled "I tell you how and why Amazon will control the Internet". Twelve months later – accompanied by the pneumatic silence that has accompanied the passage of time – I return to raise the question in the serene certainty of having written to the wind again.
Bezos will probably send his satellites into orbit using Blue Origin, a space company obviously owned by him, and more details will be known soon.
Anyone who thinks that the modern "conquistador" sits on his laurels is wrong. Absolute control takes time and genius. The next move will probably be the creation of a search engine, very powerful, naturally “free” (a word that is very popular with those who live on the Internet), perhaps equally capable of guiding users to carefully chosen destinations. I'm sure we'll be back to talk about it.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/ecco-come-bezos-di-amazon-con-kuiper-controllera-la-vita-digitale/ on Sun, 23 Aug 2020 07:35:35 +0000.