[pinnochio]

You're quoting two different people here.

  - Google actively is working to, and has reduced, conflict cobalt from the supply chain.

That's good, but doesn't change the fact that the supply chain for tech exemplifies "the hub exploiting the periphery".

  - No one I know in Silicon Valley "cleaves to Hobbesian myths" to "justify" their grip on anything. Everyone I know shows up to work to provide for their family, grow professionally, or self-actualize.

"Like much of the oligarchic class, the boy-gods of Silicon Valley" is likely referring to the CEO/founder/VC class.

  - People who "dream of Singularity and interplanetary civilization" isn't a thing, no one dreams of this fantasy.

That's patently untrue. A bunch of them post here.

[charcircuit]

>tech exemplifies "the hub exploiting the periphery".

Two parties agreeing on a price for something is not exploitation. Both parties benefit from working together.

[GolfPopper]

And when one of the parties is a group of men with guns who abuse their neighbors in order to produce the something they're selling to the other party, it becomes exploitation in a quick hurry.

[kruffalon]

There is also the fact that an agreement under a power imbalance can be, and often is, exploitative.

[Mikhail_Edoshin]

Marx's use of the word "exploitation" is misunderstood. Exploitation is using another person as a thing. Exploit as one exploits natural resources.

[lotsofpulp]

That is a poor delineation of exploit.

I use any number of professionals’ knowledge or skills or supplies just the same as I use natural gas to heat the home or water to hydrate myself or clean whatever.

Maybe something about the seller (or buyer) being under duress would be a start to defining exploitation.