(CNN) -- By 2023, hideously powerful technology companies like the Weyland Corporation will rule the world. At least that's the storyline in "Prometheus," Ridley Scott's much-anticipated prequel to "Aliens," which will be released next month. "We can create cybernetic individuals who are indistinguishable from us," Peter Weyland, the hubristic CEO of the Weyland Corporation, boasts in a teaser for the film. "We are the gods now." While the roguish Weyland might be an invention, Scott's imaginary 2023 is no longer pure science fiction. Even today, big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Apple mimic "the gods" in their acquisition of vast wealth and power.
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Tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Apple increasingly resemble fictional Weyland Corporation depicted in Ridley Scott's "Prometheus," says Andrew Keen
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Keen: While their value exceeds the GDP of medium-sized countries, these companies display scant social concern
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Keen predicts an "unhappy ending" if firms like Google, Facebook and Apple "continue to amass such unnatural power and wealth."
@placeholder has just got its first license to operate its self-driving cars, but will it need and apply for a similar license to finance the exploration of space in its pursuit of "human progress?"