Book I — The Machine We Built / Chapter 03
Who Holds the Keys
Every system has an owner. Ownership is the question hyper-dependency wants you not to ask.
Ask what a system does, and you learn its function. Ask who owns it, who maintains it, and who can switch it off, and you learn its politics. This chapter is about the second question — the one that gets skipped in most conversations about technology.
A tool you cannot repair is not fully yours. A platform you cannot leave is not a convenience, it is a landlord. Solystopia is not anti-technology; it is pro-ownership, in the fullest sense of the word.
The most important spec of any system is not what it does, but who controls it when you need it most.