Elon the Warlord

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

While communication technologies have expanded rapidly over the past few decades, most of them still remain land-based, through things like fiber and copper-based cable networks, cell towers, and a vast system of undersea cables.   But those land-based efforts can't reach everyone, and they are quickly being supplemented through the use of manmade communications's satellites operating in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Currently there are more than 15,000 satellites spinning around our planet in Low Earth Orbit whose primary focus is communications.   They provide high-speed, low-latency broadband and mobile internet services to hard-to-reach remote and underserved areas, places that have suffered disasters, and war zones, as well as other spots where land communications usually can't reach - such as planes in flight, ships at sea, and even guided weaponry.

Of the more than 15,000 satellites currently helping the world to operate and communicate, more than two-thirds of them (over 11,000) are owned and controlled by one American company, Starlink, which is owned by a publicly-traded company, SpaceX, whose primary shareholder, Founder, CEO, Chairman, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and chief designer is an immigrant to the United States by the name of Elon Musk.

Most information on earth that has to travel through (or bounce off of) satellites controlled by one man - Elon Musk, a situation which makes him as powerful, in some respects, as a nation-state.  As an eample of the immense international power that can rest with Elon, you need look no further than this week (October 12-14) when the Starlink system (owned by SpaceX, which is in-turn controlled by Musk) imposed speed limits on communications from the military in Ukraine to its missiles in flight toward Russia, thus causing the missiles to out-fly their pilots on the ground back in Ukraine.    (There are US Senators attempting to launch an investigation into the matter to see if this crippling of Ukraine's war effort was instigated by Musk himself, or done at the behest of Trump.)

Is this where the wars of the future are headed, with countries purchasing their weaponry from one set of oligarchs, and then paying another set for the capability to use them?  Will we reach a point where we can pay the oligarchs to just not have wars?

Why am I having visions of Milo Minderbinder?