The Post-State Billionaire, Part 5A: Can Sovereign Tech Be Reclaimed?
We may not win against Big Tech, but we must build what they can’t own. Sovereign tech isn’t nostalgia. It’s a rebellion worth failing for.
TL;DR
Big Tech owns the digital empire, but not every inch of the map is lost. Sovereign tech lives in open-source code, mesh networks, and indie infrastructure. We may not win — but building tools they can’t own is an act of defiance, not nostalgia. Reclaiming tech is resistance with a soul.
The infrastructure is captured. The platforms are rigged. The billionaires have carved up the internet like a Roman province — and we are paying rent to cross it. So the question stands like a guillotine above every digital thinker’s head:
Can sovereign tech be reclaimed? Or is the dream already dead?
The Case for Reclamation
No, we don’t own the stacks. But here’s what we do have:
Open-source code that resists capture. Think Signal, Mastodon, Matrix, and the literal bones of the internet.
Cooperative infrastructure: community broadband, solar-powered mesh networks, localized data centers.
Decentralized platforms that can survive without venture capital or ad tech: Lemmy, PeerTube, Solid, IndieWeb.
Civic technologists and rogue sysadmins who remember when the web was about connection, not control.
Reclamation doesn’t mean taking Google back. It means making something they can’t own.
The Case Against It
The machine is big. Bigger than you think. Most people don’t even realize they’ve consented to surveillance feudalism. Try to leave Gmail, and you’ll lose half your life. Try running a business off AWS and then moving off — good luck. The moat is wide. The lock-in is real.
And worse: the language of tech has been colonized. Terms like "openness," "community," and "disruption" have been co-opted into corporate lies. Even our resistance sometimes uses the master's tools.
But Reclamation Was Never About Winning
Let’s be honest — we might not win.
But that’s not the point.
The point is to build proof-of-concept futures. To show that sovereignty isn’t just possible, but preferable. To infect the imagination. To light enough sparks that one day the wildfire does catch.
Because if we don’t, we leave the next generation inside a prison disguised as a product.
Action (Even If It Feels Small or Impossible):
Contribute to a tool that isn’t owned.
Join an open-source project.
Switch one digital dependency to a cooperative or indie platform.
Pay for software that respects your freedom.
Build something small and sovereign — even if no one’s watching.
Reclaiming tech isn’t just strategic. It’s spiritual. It’s existential!
Next up: The Post-State Billionaire, Part 5B: Burn It Down or Regulate It to Hell?
