How COVID turned APPLE into the Most Powerful Company in the World
“Progress would be wonderful — if only it would stop.” ― Robert Musil
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You can listen to me read this essay here:
Apple Inc is the most powerful company in the world. It is worth $3 trillion.
Putting that into perspective:
Combine Walmart, Disney, Netflix, Nike, Exxon Mobil, Coca-Cola, Comcast, Morgan Stanley, McDonald’s, AT&T, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, IBM and Ford.
Apple is still worth more.
And:
It is worth more than the value of all of the world’s cryptocurrencies. It is roughly equal to the gross domestic product of Britain or India. And it is equivalent to about six JPMorgan Chases, the biggest American bank, or 30 General Electrics.
How did this happen? The key is COVID.
The pandemic facilitated the greatest transfer of wealth in history, from the lower classes to the elites. Apple is the company that profited the most from that transfer.
We cannot talk about Apple without first addressing the story of the Garden of Eden.
There is no doubt that Apple’s logo alludes to this.
Apple’s promise is as old as Genesis, Chapter 3. Like the Devil promises Eve, whoever takes a bite out of the “Apple” will gain unlimited knowledge.
Knowledge is power—the power of God—a temptation impossible for humans to resist.
However, as Arthur C. Clark says:
“Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight.”
Those who bite the Apple do not gain knowledge. They do not gain wisdom or foresight. They drown in information. Information that is fed at such a dizzying rate that they can never keep up. The more they get, the more they want, always afraid they will “miss something”.
Apple was founded by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1976. In my essay, Know Your Enemy, I delve into Steve Jobs’ “The Lost Interview,” where Jobs says something that I have never forgotten.
“Picasso had a saying: ‘Good artists’ copy. Great artists steal.’ We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
The thing is, there is no proof Picasso ever said this. But it makes sense that Steve Jobs would love to repeat it, nonetheless. Elites are vampires. They find the most creative people and suck the life out of them. It happens every day in the music and film industries, to name two obvious examples.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve Jobs had made a deal with the Devil. In 2011, at the age of 56, he died of cancer. Perhaps he exchanged his own life for Apple’s success, which was really quite remarkable:
It took 39 years for Apple to reach its first trillion dollars.
Two years to reach $2 trillion.
And just one and a half years to reach $3 trillion.
2021 was the year that changed everything. It was the year Apple and other companies like it saw the rewards of COVID.
It was on March 11, 2020, that the World Health Organization declared coronavirus a pandemic.
By April 2020, half of the world's population was under some form of lock down. Such coordinated control of the global population was only made possible due to advancements in technology.
With billions of people stuck inside their homes, sales of electronic devices skyrocketed. Screens became the only way to obtain food. People shifted to working on computers. Technological devices became the only way to find out news, communicate with friends and family, and enjoy entertainment.
As mega-companies’ profits soared, ordinary citizens lost their jobs, their homes, their physical and mental health. They were conditioned to take faulty PCR tests and experimental drugs. All while locked in their homes and unable to access healthcare for anything other than Covid.
To ease the stress of it all, people were encouraged to live in virtual worlds where they could escape the dangers of reality. As a reward for their obedience, they were given relief checks of $1,400.
The media started reporting on the possible transition to a “universal basic income” that promised to free people up from work so they could do whatever they wanted with their “free time”.
Just yesterday Elon Musk started calling it “universal HIGH income”, claiming it will become “somewhat of an equalizer”.
That the richest man in the world would make such a condescending statement should expose him to even his most loyal minions as a liar and a hypocrite. Unfortunately, most people are happy to believe the lies. The truth is just too horrible to contemplate.
During 2021:
Microsoft’s profits rose 44 percent to $15.5 billion.
Facebook’s profits nearly doubled to $9.5 billion.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, more than doubled to nearly $18 billion.
Amazon posted $8.1 billion in profit, an increase of 220 percent from the same period the year before.
Thanks to COVID, elites acquired nearly twice as much wealth in new money as the bottom 99% of the world’s population:
since 2020, the richest 1% of the world gathered two-thirds of all new wealth, worth $42 trillion.
By 2022, the global millionaires held approximately half of net household wealth.
Just 81 billionaires have more wealth than 50% of the world combined. Despite this, they are taxed the least, with half of them living in regions where wealth isn’t taxed at all.
According to Bloomberg, the 25 richest families in the world added a total of $1.5 trillion to their wealth during the pandemic.
Here are the top seven richest families:
Al Nahyan Family
Wealth: $305 Billion
Location: United Arab Emirates
Walton Family
Wealth: $259.7 Billion
Location: United States
Hermès Family
Wealth: $150.9 Billion
Location: France
Mars Family
Wealth: $141.9 Billion
Location: United States
Al Thani Family
Wealth: $133 Billion
Location: Qatar
Koch Family
Wealth: $127.3 Billion
Location: United States
Al Saud Family
Wealth: $112 Billion
Location: Saudi Arabia
It is most interesting to note that the Rothschild Family is rarely included on any “list”. Yet, their total wealth is estimated at a staggering $400 billion with some estimates ranging as high as $1 trillion.
You can shrug and say that’s how it’s always been. The rich are always getting richer while the poor are getting poorer.
But no. It hasn’t always been like this. There are two facts that make it exceedingly different:
The rate at which the elites’ wealth is growing.
The control they wield, not just within a country or a continent, but across the entire globe.
The level of power the elites now have is thanks to advancements in technology. Neurotechnology is the next step.
Ten years ago, no one could have imagined that people would be holding onto something called a smart phone 24/7, unable to switch it off or even put it down.
The companies that brought us those smart phones are now experimenting with brain computer interfaces (BCI) technology. BCI is like a "universal controller", or as the neuroscientist Professor Rafael Yuste has described it, an iPhone for the brain:
We now know how to induce hallucinations in mice by manipulating their cerebral cortex. What we can do in mice today will be possible to do in humans tomorrow.
Elon Musk’s ultimate goal is to connect everyone to the Vast Machine with his Neuralink device inserted into brains by a robot.
So is Blackrock’s Neurotech, “Empowered by Thought”.
Apple has the same goal with Synchron Switch. The device works with a range of sensors inserted into the brain via a blood vessel.
Less invasive technology is currently being used to condition the masses to accept BCIs. People in jobs where they need to remain alert, like air traffic controllers, have headsets that monitor their brains, alerting them when their attention levels are dropping.
Children in Chinese high schools attend class with probes attached to their heads, informing teachers about their brain activity in real time.
The American company Brainwave Science offers a product to security services and police that can monitor suspects' brains during interrogations.
Don’t allow yourself to be conditioned by these companies.
If you wear Air Pods, don’t.
In July 2023, Apple announced it had obtained a patent for its invention of a next-generation AirPods Sensor System that could measure Biosignals and Electrical Activity of a User’s brain. Apple is considering the transition of AirPods into a health monitoring device.
Take off your smart watches.
The Apple Watch tracks each step you take and each beat of your heart. It has a new patent that will enable watch users to use a variety of gestures aimed at making interactions more “intuitive and efficient”.
Get rid of your VR headsets.
Apple Vision Pro … “introduces a fully three-dimensional user interface controlled by the most natural and intuitive inputs possible — a user’s EYES.”
The Eyes are the Window to the Soul.
It is said that the eyes are the window to the soul. That is what Apple wants. To access your very soul. It is what Zuckerberg wants with his Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses that allow you to “not only relive the moment, but really live in the moment, too”.
When you wear these devices on your eyes, AI is seeking to understand the most intimate and illusive part of yourself: your emotions.
The “ghost in the machine” is learning about your feelings toward the world around you, about animals and plants, about the universe. It is learning about the people you love and the people you hate; your interactions with your partner, your family and friends; it is discovering through your eyes what fascinates you, what grosses you out, what scares you, what makes you timid and shy, what inspires you, what makes you laugh, what makes you cry. It is learning everything about what takes you to the depths of despair and what lifts you up again with hope.
In this light, Apples’ promise that its products “will have new vision health features that encourage healthy behaviors” becomes ominous rather than helpful.
Apple newsroom says, “New mental health features allow users to log their momentary emotions and daily moods, see valuable insights, and easily access assessments and resources.”
Dr. Michelle Craske, professor of psychology and psychiatry at UCLA, is quoted as promising that “Identifying our feelings has been shown to help us manage difficult emotions, appreciate positive moments, and improve wellbeing.”
Users can scroll through engaging, multidimensional shapes and choose how they are feeling in a range from Very Pleasant to Very Unpleasant. Then, they can select associations that are having the biggest impact on their feelings, like Travel or Family, and describe their feelings, such as Grateful or Worried.
Based on what AI comes to understand about you, if you get too depressed or angry, it might conclude you are mentally ill and order you into a clinic. Or it might put you on medications that you don’t want to take. There will be nothing you can do about it. In fact, if you argue, it will only prove AI was right and you need help.
The ultimate goal is to steal everything about you until nothing is left but an empty shell. Where once, AI was the ghost, now YOU are the ghost, and AI is you.
Remember what Steve Jobs said: that artists steal. Remember that he lied. And that there is always an element of truth in those lies. Elites are not the creators. They are the vampires. They are the ones that steal everything and everyone. All to feed their hungry machines.
Don’t take the bite. Don’t let Apple steal your soul.
One more thing, a hopeful one, from Ted Gioia:
"Tech leaders gathered in Austin for the South-by-Southwest conference a few days ago. There they showed a video boasting about the wonders of new AI technology.
And the audience started booing."
There's a video of it on X, and it's pretty heartening!
No robber baron ever amassed a fortune without exploitation, and Apple is no exception. As you astutely mention in this excellent piece, it's a matter of scale -- we've never seen the likes of this kind of consolidated wealth and power before.
For god's sake, wake up, humanity. Take back your attention, your sovereignty, your intrinsic power, before you no longer even remember what those are.
Thanks for this essay, Karen.