was no artificial intelligence, and search took place at a snail’s pace, in
libraries, through something called a card catalogue.
Despite those handicaps, we tackled huge projects for humanity.
First, there was the race to save the world, and split the atom. Hitler
had a head start, and if the Nazis got there first, it would have been
game over. In 1939, the U.S. government launched the Manhattan
Project. Within six years, some 130,000 people were mobilized. That’s
about a third of Amazon’s workforce.
Within six years, we had won the race to the bomb. You may not
look at that as a worthy goal. But it was a strategic priority to win that
technology race, and we mobilized to do it. We did the same thing to
reach the Moon, an endeavor that, at its peak, involved 400,000
workers from the United States, Canada, and Britain.
Each of the horsemen dwarfs both the Manhattan and Apollo
projects in intelligence and technological capacity. Their computing
power is near limitless, and ridiculously cheap. They inherit three
generations of research on statistical analysis, optimization, and
artificial intelligence. Each horseman swims in data we hemorrhage
24/7, analyzed by some of the most intelligent, creative, and
determined people who have ever lived.
What is the endgame for this, the greatest concentration of human
and financial capital ever assembled? What is their mission? Cure
cancer? Eliminate poverty? Explore the universe? No, their goal: to
sell another fucking Nissan.
The heroes and innovators of yesteryear created, and still create,
jobs for hundreds of thousands of people. Unilever has a $156 billion
market cap spread over 171,000 middle-class households.^8 ,^9 Intel has
a $165 billion market cap and employs 107,000 people.^10 ,^11 Compare
that to Facebook, which has a $448 billion market cap and 17,000
employees.^12 ,^13
We have a perception of these large companies that they must be
creating a lot of jobs, but in fact they have a small number of high-
paying jobs, and everybody else is fighting over the scraps. America is
on pace to be home to 3 million lords and 350 million serfs. Again, it’s
never been easier to be a billionaire, but never been harder to be a
millionaire.