Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • September 11, 2026 11:21 AM

@ ALL,

Whilst looking at Cliff Stoll’s somewhat “Mad Cap talk” on YouTube,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=656058JxTM0

You might also think about watching our Host @Bruce’s talk as well,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eEBv0STiYhI

Not unexpectedly “late stage capitalism” and “lobbyist driven politics” gets in there… And reference is given to British SciFi Author Charlie Stross’ observation that,

“Capitalism is Slow AI”.

The thing people have to remember is that in this sense,

“AI is not the problem, it is merely the mirror to capitalist intent.”

Hence the reason for pointing out AI is in reality an “arms length authoritarian tool”.

Clive Robinson • September 11, 2026 1:45 PM

@ Anonymous, ALL,

With regards your observation of,

“So according to fake Clive, places with higher life expectancy and happiness than us are “gone,” and the solution is to drag our life expectancy down even farther.”

Yup “fake-Clive” appears to have a sub-MAGA outlook on life. It’s the sort of thing you would expect from the likes of the “World Economic Forum” the sole purpose of which is to push,

“Enslavement by debt and rent”

With the only hope of escape being death before your pension does not pay you the price of a loaf of bread, let alone rent a roof to put over your head.

A century ago, it was thought that Capitalism was effectively dead… And whilst trade was essential for industry to survive (unless there was an active destruction of goods by warfare).

Somehow Capitalism survived and the price was high in terms of what the average person could earn thus buy. In order to maximise the extraction of money

“Goods were made cheap and not reparable.”

So you had to buy over and over (it’s one reason US house design is designed to last less than half a century, whilst in Europe a couple or three centuries is normal).

But the aim in the 1950’s when shoddy goods could not be sustained as a business model is what in the UK was called “On the never never” of “Hire Purchase” and later “non ownership leasing” which is in effect “fixed term rent”.

DMCA 1201 has in effect now made everything “fixed term rent” as everything has a computer in it.

The remaining trick the WEF and US State Dept are working towards is

1, You can not own anything.
2, Anything you create belongs to a corporation in some way.

The latter can be seen by the “AI Surveillance” of Microsoft etc and the IP theft of creativity by OpenAI, Anthropic etc.

As has been pointed out in the past US Style Capitalism being forced into the global economy is actually a death sentence not just for what many think is capitalism, but those who think it.

A book that details this is reviewed at,

https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/03/31/what-does-late-stage-capitalism-really-mean-uc-berkeley-professor-chronicles-an-apocalyptic-history/

But it’s conclusion is not that far away from your second observation of,

“No arguing with that kind of genius.”

Interestingly some US citizens are now talking about “socialism” just as it’s veing killed of in Europe by the actions of the US State Department and the past few Executives.

That $5000 the Trumper promised voters the night before last is very probably like all “Politician’s Promises” fairly worthless.

But consider if it were to happen what it would do to,

1, US Inflation.
2, US National debt interest.

None of that would be of any benefit except to those who hold assets they rent to those without assets.