this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

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Title quote stolen from JZW: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2023/10/the-best-way-to-profit-from-ai/

Yet again, the best way to profit from a gold rush is to sell shovels.

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[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Shoulda guessed from the name "British Indian Ocean" it's a region mired in the most heinous imperialist bullshit.

I wish the colonists a very nice time and I hope very comical things happen to them from the point of view of the Chagossians.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's a bit more involved than that.

The part where BIOT is located is geographically close to Mauritius, which used to be part of the Empire. When decolonization happened, part of the principle was that the entire constituent part was to be decolonized. But at the time, the Vietnam war was happening, the US wanted the UK to contribute, the UK did not want to send armed forces, so the compromised by offering Diego Garcia as an airbase. But to do that, they needed to keep control over it, so they simply ignored the principle of keeping the decolonized territory intact, kept the Chagos, kicked out everyone who lived there, and there we are.

[–] m@blat.at 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@gerikson @bitofhope weirdly enough I did a bit of digging into the history of .io and it's most likely that neither the BIOT (which barely exists as an entity other than on paper anyway) or HMG has ever been paid anything in relation to it. https://blat.at/@m/111340851187004203

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 4 points 1 year ago

Super interesting, thanks!