Post #2121203
2026-02-20 08:16 UTC
The path to technology that serves open societies (qua Popper) flows directly through open systems of the sort @mnot describes. And through those open systems, we can achieve the goal of interoperability, and through it, portability.
And as @pluralistic will tell you, that's how you fix the outsized power of these petty tyrants. The gatekeepers only get away with extraction because they erode (and sometimes dynamite) the foundations of portable, interoperable computing: open access to APIs.
Replies (2)
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@slightlyoff@toot.cafe 2026-02-20 08:16
To make it explicit, these actions are *corrupt*. They are corrupt because they almost always require the application of government power (and/or unjust inaction) to create situations in which public capacity is abused for private ends. Or said differently, the way modern mobile duopolists make money is by closing off access to APIs from browsers (and other metaplatforms) that could disrupt them with openness through competition. And they require government support to maintain unjust power.
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@pauleveritt@fosstodon.org 2026-02-20 12:26
@slightlyoff @mnot @pluralistic A Popper reference! (I led a knowledge base project for Open Society Institute for a good number of years.)