Microphone. Teleprompter. Teleprompter. Hello, people of the internet. Have you ever heard the thing that goes, oh, you have a phone, you've got a problem with capitalism, and yet you've got a phone, and you're on the internet? And the implication of that is that you're a hypocrite, because if you dislike capitalism, then, you know, capitalism made your phone and it made the internet. And while the, you know, we live in a society, I'm very smart meme is definitely one way to respond to that. There are some other issues with that statement and those assumptions. For one, I mean, capitalism doesn't make things, right? People make things. And when gay people make machines that help Antifa, formerly known as the Allied Forces, kill Nazis, we call those machines computers, which is a fancy old word for phone. And when Soviet scientists come up with the idea to connect those computers to usher in an era of cybernetic communism, we, and by we I mean the CIA, beat them to it and call it the internet. So when you're sitting there using your gay Nazi killing device to practice cybernetic communism, you're fine. You have nothing to worry about. You can criticize capitalism. The real question is, why do all of these capitalists put up with it? capitalism. The real question is, why do all of these capitalists put up with it? My name is Pat. And if any of what I just said confused you or angered you, contradicted maybe some of your beliefs, then you might be interested in what I'm about to announce. I'm about to announce a thing. Folks, I'm going to start a thing. Yeah, starting a web series that I'm calling History of the Power of Gafam. I'll be releasing little 10-minute videos once a week, every Wednesday throughout this entire year, 2022, Wednesday throughout this entire year, 2022, and I'll be releasing those on archive.org, youtube.com, and then I'll compile several episodes into podcasts on podcast streaming services at less regular intervals. In this series, I'm going to be talking about a whole lot of things. To give you a sense of it, let me discuss the title. History of the Power of Gafam. Gafam, if you're unfamiliar, is an acronym that stands for Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft. Others might call them the Big Five. I feel quite comfortable asserting that you're aware of these companies, right? I mean, they're certainly aware of you intimately. So I'm talking about these companies. What about them? Power. They seem to have power of some description I think is uncontroversial to say. Now, power is a very broad term, right? It means many things in many languages, including English. Power means at least two things, right? Power to, as in, I have the power to lock the doors and cower under my desk, and power over, as in, I have subjects, people or animals, whose lives and actions are dictated by me, the one with the power over them. So the word power in the title of my series is useful for my purposes because it can mean so many things. And I want to talk about so many things. I want to talk about where did this power come from? What is the scope of this power as far as I'm able? What is the scope of this power, as far as I'm able, and how one might respond to such power, which... Don't get your hopes up. The word history, right, is also in the title. This is not a political manifesto, okay? You may have gotten the sense that I'm an anti-capitalist and I'm anti-fascist, and you'd be correct. I'm also an anarchist, you know, in my heart. But this series is not intended as a political screed. I just want to tell stories, true stories. I might slip up a bit at times. I might refer to a Pinochet or a Stalin by some pejorative, but I do intend to refrain on editorializing too much. I want to tell stories, stories that I've been reading about all my life, stories that I'm not hearing enough coming from other people for my taste. That's all. Finally, ah, a history. That a in there is a reminder for me and for you that this is one story, this is one perspective of many. The subject I'd like to cover is very wide, as mentioned. There are innumerable ways to look at it, and there is no definitive history of the power of Gatham, and I'm not going to pretend that this is it. As for the remaining words of the, of, I mean, maybe I don't have to explain. Those are there so that if you make an acronym of the title of the series, you get a hot pog, which is my Twitter handle. I like the ring of that. Who am I? You ask? Well, first and foremost, I guess I'm some guy called Pat. I'm a musician when things are good. Currently, I'm an IT guy, which is I program, I do sysadmin shit, server config, you're bored already, that kind of guy. I'm a millennial, which means that I'm about as old as the World Wide Web, and I grew up in parallel with the World Wide Web. You know, as a millennial, like all millennials, I was told that the world is one thing, and then I grew up next to the thing that turned the world into an entirely different thing. I had the good fortune of having two parents who were into computers and the internet fairly early on. Free and open source software has been on my radar all my life. I was playing games on Linux before I ever saw Windows. As a kid, I started programming websites and doing animations and little games. I've also been very interested in just the history of computers and technology for a long time, and I've read a lot about it. That's me. For our purposes here today, that's me. Why do I want to talk about a history of the power of Gafam? Well, this is in no small part something that I'm doing for myself, right? To help me map out my thoughts on this subject. And if I do a good job, you know, this series might turn into a useful reference for others, for you, maybe. There's a lot of mind-blowing things contained in these stories as well that might be, this might be fun for somebody, you know, to learn. In any case, I'm, I'm made up my mind. I'm doing it. I'm doing the thing. History of the Power of Gotham. I'm doing it. Tune in next week to find out how the internet got started. Episode one. I wish you all the best, all the nice things that one can wish. Pat out. Nailed it. Thank you.