How We Accidentally Built Skynet

As a great performing Stock.

I like technology because I used to believe it helped me to dissociate from the world, but as I get older and I get to understand the unreasonable way the social systems are built, I tend to accept that there’s no way to see and talk about technology if you don’t understand whats happening as a society. I’ve been pushing back on talking about war because it is not a subject that interests me at all, but in the dystopian future we´ve built, the relationship between money, war, and society is more insane than any script Mr Cameron or Spielberg ever dreamt of directing. Surely there's something more cheerful we could discuss this week, besides the world on fire? Maybe adorable baby pandas? Or literally anything that doesn't involve the words 'war' and 'capitalism' in the same sentence?" And normally, I'd agree! But unfortunately, we need to talk about how our modern economy has essentially become that friend who gets weirdly excited every time there's drama in the group chat, except instead of drama, it's armed conflict, and instead of excitement, it's making obscene amounts of money.

Because here's the thing: we've created a system where artificial intelligence companies are literally profiting from targeting humans for death, stablecoins are somehow both rebelling against government control AND completely dependent on government debt, and apparently, the plot of Terminator was less "science fiction" and more "business plan." It's like we looked at every dystopian movie ever made and thought, "You know what? Let's speedrun this thing!"

The Skynet Irony: When AI Companies Become War Profiteers

Let's start with our first delicious irony: Palantir Technologies, a company that sounds like it should be selling wizard accessories on Etsy, has instead become the poster child for AI-powered warfare. And before you say, "Well, at least it's not literally Skynet," let me just point out that Palantir's software is now "responsible for most of the targeting in Ukraine" and processes "dizzying arrays of battlefield data" to present military commanders with targeting options.

So to recap: we have an AI system that analyzes vast amounts of data to identify and eliminate human targets. If that doesn't sound familiar, let me refresh your memory with a little movie from 1984 where an AI system becomes self-aware and decides humans are the problem. The only difference is that instead of becoming self-aware and turning on us, we've just cut out the middleman and gone straight to the "making money from human death".

And the profits? Oh, they're astronomical. Palantir's stock has gained over 1,300% since going public, reaching an all-time high of $141.41 during the recent Iran-Israel conflict. The company's CEO, Alex Karp, has literally stated that "bad times are very good for Palantir" because its products are "built for danger".

The company's Maven Smart System contract was increased from $480 million to $1.3 billion through 2029, a nearly $800 million expansion driven by its battlefield performance. Meanwhile, Palantir's "digital kill chain" uses AI-enabled models that "learn and improve with each strike". At this point, the only thing separating us from a full Terminator scenario is that our killer robots are still sending invoices.

The Stablecoin Paradox: Anarchist Money Built on Government Debt

Now, let's talk about our second irony, which is somehow even more absurd than the first. Stablecoins, we talk a lot about them, and we like them a lot. But the logic behind these digital currencies is designed to rebel against traditional banking and government control, and use government debt as collateral. It's like starting a punk rock band that exclusively covers elevator music, or opening a vegan restaurant that serves nothing but bacon. The irony is that if the treasury bonds perform (with war, they do), the collateral performs. So our anarchist future is more promising by financing war spending?

The stablecoin market has exploded to over $172.8 billion, with Tether alone controlling $119.18 billion of that, which is 68.98% of the entire market. So let me get this straight: libertarians and crypto anarchists have created a $172 billion market based on the premise of escaping government control, and they've done it by... buying massive amounts of government debt? It's like protesters showing up to an anti-government rally in government-issued vehicles, wearing government-regulated seatbelts, and paying for gas with government-backed currency. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a blockchain.

During the Ukraine conflict, stablecoin market cap grew 35.4% as people sought alternatives to traditional banking, while simultaneously increasing demand for the US Treasury bonds that back these very stablecoins. Tether has processed more transactions than Visa, creating what researchers call "digital dollar imperialism" – essentially extending American monetary influence globally through a system designed to escape American monetary control.

The War Economy: Making Money While the World Burns

But here's where these two ironies intersect in the most dystopian way possible. We now have AI systems making money from targeting humans, while digital currencies designed to escape government control are funding that same government's endless capacity for warfare through debt purchases.

The numbers are staggering: US wars from 2001-2022 cost $8 trillion, representing more than half of the $15 trillion increase in national debt during that period. Meanwhile, global defense spending reached a record $2.4 trillion in 2023, with companies like Palantir capturing premium valuations by making warfare more "efficient".

Gold, that ancient hedge against chaos, has risen 65% since the Ukraine conflict began, while energy commodities spiked over 50% during the initial invasion . Defense stocks outperformed broader markets by an average of 20% during the 2022-2024 conflict periods. It's like the entire global economy has become that friend who always shows up to comfort you after a breakup but secretly hopes you never get back together because they enjoy the drama too much.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Look, I'm not saying we're living in a dystopian nightmare where AI companies profit from human death while anarchist currencies fund government war machines through a system of perpetual debt. I'm just saying that if someone had pitched this exact scenario as a movie in 1990, we would have laughed them out of Hollywood for being too unrealistic.

We've created a system where Palantir's CEO can openly celebrate how "bad times are very good" for his AI targeting business, while stablecoin enthusiasts champion their liberation from government control using instruments of government debt. It's financial nihilism with a user-friendly interface and a really good marketing team.

The most depressing part? This isn't some accidental bug in the system – it's a feature. War capitalism has evolved to the point where conflicts don't just create winners and losers; they create entire ecosystems of profit extraction that span from traditional gold and energy markets to cutting-edge AI systems and digital currencies.

So the next time someone tells you that technology will save us from our worst impulses, just remember: we built Skynet, made it profitable, funded it with anarchist money backed by government debt, and then wondered why the world feels like it's going insane. At least when the robots finally do take over, they'll have excellent quarterly earnings reports to show their shareholders.