The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born

Language, Metaphor, and Style

• Some object to the article’s title as “things can’t die or be born,” others respond that metaphorical use (e.g., “death of disco”) is normal and useful.
• A side thread riffs on capitalization and informality as register choices rather than just laziness.

Quality and Accuracy of the Article

• Several commenters praise the piece as unusually well written and insightful.
• Others find it meandering, anecdote-driven, and geopolitically “delusional,” disputing claims about Iran “winning,” US decline in Asia, and the petrodollar’s end.
• There is disagreement over whether recent US actions (e.g., in the Gulf region) mark a historic strategic blunder or continuity with past failures like Iraq.

AI Boom: Reality vs Hype

• Practitioners describe overwhelming demand for AI: data centers saturated, rapid revenue growth, high salaries, strong startup capital, and the US as primary talent hub.
• Critics see a bubble fueled by VC money, FOMO, and “missile‑gap” style anxiety; they question whether AI yields sustained productivity or just cost-shifted dysfunction.
• Enterprise anecdotes report modest gains offset by large amounts of wasted effort, hallucinated outputs in formal documents, and burnout from “babysitting” agents.
• Debate over whether AI is “real intelligence” or just token prediction; some insist its non‑intelligence and error rate limit net gains.

US vs China, Open vs Closed Models

• One camp claims US frontier models and labs outpace Chinese open source; another counters with citations that Chinese models are near‑par, cheaper, and rapidly improving.
• Hardware constraints and export controls are seen by some as a US advantage; others argue China is catching up and already dominant across many key technologies.
• Many argue open, self‑hosted models will eventually dominate due to cost, customization, and freedom from provider whims; others say current open‑source efforts lag.

Language, Education, and Long-Term Power

• English as global tech lingua franca is framed as a major US advantage but possibly eroding with automated translation.
• Some note English’s structural flexibility and loanword friendliness; others say its real “moat” is sheer installed base, not inherent superiority.
• Commenters worry that US demographic trends, weakened education, and curtailed immigration will undermine the talent “flywheel.”

Tech, Regulation, and Empire

• Discussion echoes the article’s claim that big tech shifted from empowering users to controlling them, with cloud/SaaS lock‑in as emblematic.
• Regulation is criticized as either overly tech-specific or too vague, easy for corporations to route around, and rarely evaluated or iterated for real-world outcomes.
• Several frame large US firms as “tools of empire,” aligned with state power, pursuing AI primarily for labor displacement and wealth concentration.