We got ‘Crowdstruck’: a glimpse to the post-Anthropocene era and the not so unlikely upcoming age of machines

Last week thousands of Windows users across the globe saw their screens turn blue. Thousands of travelers got stuck due to massive flight cancellations. Entire companies suffered a disruption in their operations due to the inability to use their operating systems. Literally we got ‘Crowdstruck’.

Not many people had heard about Crowdstrike up until last week when most likely a cybersecurity software update affecting content updates for Microsoft’s Windows – yet to be confirmed – caused a massive outage of one of the most used softwares in the globe.?

I’m wondering whether this is a glimpse of the future that awaits in the not so unlikely post-Anthropocene era when finally the age of machines rises?

A tricky question indeed, but despite of personal opinions and futurology, the global outage shows two things: firstly, the high level of dependency on few operating systems that literally move the economy and entire societies on a daily basis and how costly to depend on them it is; and secondly, the risk of letting digital power to be concentrated in the hands of a few.

Let’s dig a little bit deeper on the first?

Today the dominant operating systems used both by homes, businesses and governments - in PC desktops, laptops and mobile devices - are basically Android, Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s iOS. The current Android’s operating system market share worldwide stands at 44.7%, while Windows’ and Apple’s stand at 27% and 17.7% respectively .

The desktop world is still dominated by Windows with 72.9%, followed by OS X with 14.9% ; whilst the tablet’s market is dominated by Apple’s IOS with 55.85% and Android with 43.98% , and the mobile market is remarkably dominated by Android with 72.1%, followed by iOS with 27% .

Now let’s look at the market share and degree of dependency by region.

Africa, Latin America and Asia depend mostly on Android with 87.9%, 83.9% and 79.8% respectively, while North America is dominated by iOS with 54.2% followed by Android with 45.5% . Whereas Europe and Oceania hold the most diversified operating systems market with a share of 38.5% for Android, 33.6% for Windows and 17.6% for iOS in the first case, and 33.9% for Windows, 26.1% for iOS and 23.4% for Android for the second.

In this digital age we’re living in there’s no doubt that we humans depend starkly on few operating systems that move entire industries, governments, the educational sector and even the military.

When it comes to the cost of digital global disruptions the impacts are deep. It is estimated that last week’s outage could cost easily $1 billion dollars alone .

The recent outage simply revealed the high risk of human/business/governmental dependence on few market players.

So, the key question here is how to democratize the digital industry so we can rely in a wider range of technologies and providers to move human’s lives?

Now let’s move to the concentration of power in the digital industry.

Big telcos dominate the world and hold unimaginable economic power that even go beyond the size of some economies in the global north. As a matter of fact, the global telecommunication sector is worth $1.5 trillion dollars and contributes 2.5% of global GDP , while the global mobile industry contributes close to $5.7 trillion dollars equivalent to 5.4% of global GDP .

Today market capitalization of big telcos over one trillion dollars is concentrated in the hands of the ‘magnificent seven’ - Apple, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Tesla. The more economic value the more concentration of power. For example, Apple’s market cap is larger than 96% of country GDPs, including in this list Brazil, Italy, Canada and Russia. Only seven countries in the world have a higher GDP. While Microsoft’s value is larger than the GDP of Brazil, Canada, Russia and South Korea .

The Crowdstrike outage highlighted the importance of democratization in the tech industry, just because it is too risky to be that exposed across sectors that move human’s lives. Simply put, we cannot leave the world’s destiny in the hands of seven global players when cybersecurity threats, misinformation, data breaches and data privacy risks are truly imminent.

Democratization in the digital arena implies both risk diversification, inclusion, diversity and equality, because what is happening in the digital world is impacting deeply our analogue lives. We need more players to create power balances in digital ecosystems and tech industries, as these sectors are growing their share over economic growth by the minute.

A more democratic post-Anthropocene implies leveling the playing field for the global south by:

First, securing universal access to internet connectivity for all, while access to technologies, digital skills development and AI literacy is essential.?

Second, stronger regulations, enhanced frameworks for data protection and more robust governance frameworks are crucial to ensure a more equitable digital future.

Third, creating incentives for business innovation, strengthening tech-enabled business endeavors, provide custom support to tech start-ups and development of new investing vehicles and amplified access to finance, will enable the access of other key players, which in turn, will amplify people’s access to digital products and services with more competitive prices, reduce costs from the irresponsible management of technologies, and overall, reduce the risk of the dominance of few ‘digital kingdoms’.

Simply put we need to grow vibrant, whole-of-society, democratic and more diverse digital ecosystems to reap the full benefits of digitalization now.

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