> Visions of faceless large corporations or even HAL controlling a small town are frightening and the stuff of science fiction.

Company towns are well-recorded history, not science fiction. Lost Hills California (home of Wonderful Pistachios) exists in the real, present, non-fictional world.

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roxolotl 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That does not make it not frightening nor not the stuff of science fiction. We know how awful corporate towns are that’s partly why cyberpunk is what it is.

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ranger_danger 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Not always... Bentonville is actually pretty great: https://youtu.be/sIwslwoQUKY

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kulahan 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There’s really nothing inherently profane about the concept, it’s just often abused. I’d love to see a few working examples out in the real world, personally.

	▲	duped 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Pullman, IL was the model of a company town and started off as a reasonable (if paternalistic) approach to providing good housing and services to your employees. Unsurprisingly, it did not last.

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FuriouslyAdrift 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I mean... Larry Ellison bought an entire Hawaiian island... from the Dole family

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C4%81na%CA%BBi

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staplers 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Dupont, WA is another

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opengrass 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Water main upgrade canceled because Sandeep from Nepal voted against it.