u/Memetic1

This was the prompt I used.

"I think a good way to deal with the power that corporations wield in our lives is to talk about them as actual forms of artificial general intelligence. I don't mean that technology companies that are making LLMs and other forms of generative AI are controlled by the AI. I'm saying that AGI was invented hundreds of years ago, and that one of it's first exposures to humanity was the Atlantic slave trade. If you look at the corporate charters from that time, and compare them to today then they are almost practically the same. The phrase maximizing shareholders profit is in fact an algorithm, and how that algorithm is applied makes all the difference. 

I think if we want a human and ecologically beneficial relationship we first have to acknowledge that the world we live in has been shaped by AI so much that you don't ask if people will allow it but the corporations. We have never been free. America wasn't free when it was founded, because corporations already existed and had influence over our nation. They already had hundreds of years of experience at trying to influence government, and so we are in that system but then keep those entities in power for hundreds of more years."

https://chatgpt.com/share/6a065e9b-2d24-83ea-af81-0a1fca50833f

This is what ChatGPT did in research mode.

# Corporations as Institutional AGI: Historical Foundations and Modern Implications

【47†embed_image】 *Figure: The 1663 royal charter of the Company of Royal Adventurers (later the Royal African Company) granted King Charles II’s private trading firm an exclusive monopoly on the West African slave trade【46†L42-L48】.* From the 17th century onward, sovereigns chartered corporations with explicit profit‐making mandates. For example, the 1663 charter excerpt above shows the Crown authorizing the “buying and selling … of any negro slaves” in Africa【46†L42-L48】. Likewise, Queen Elizabeth’s 1600 charter for the British East India Company tied corporate commerce to national prestige (“contribute to the greatness of England”)【12†L159-L167】, while King James I’s 1606 Virginia Company charter empowered private investors to “make habitation” and establish colonies in North America【44†L62-L70】. In each case, these early corporate charters treated the company as a quasi‐autonomous agent: it could own property, raise armed forces, administer justice, and most importantly **generate wealth**. In effect, these historical corporations were given a built‐in objective function – codified in law – to accumulate profit and expand political power.

- **Example colonial charters:** Royal African Company (1663): exclusive slave-trade monopoly【46†L42-L48】.

- British East India Company (1600): global trade rights under the English flag【12†L159-L167】.

- Virginia Company (1606): authority to settle and govern Virginia【44†L62-L70】.

Each charter framed a corporate “mission” of wealth extraction or commerce. In modern terms, this is akin to programming a vast organization with an *algorithmic objective* (e.g. maximize trade profits). Notably, contemporary corporate law still reflects this heritage. For instance, Delaware’s General Corporation Law explicitly allows a new corporation to be formed “to conduct or promote any lawful business or purpose”【33†L50-L58】 – effectively granting companies a blank check, subject only to legality, while assuming their “purpose” will be profitability. In short, from royal charters to state codes, corporations have long been legalized as powerful, artificial entities with profit-maximizing goals at their core.

## The Profit Motive as a Corporate “Algorithm”

Over time, jurists and scholars distilled this corporate mission into the doctrine of **shareholder primacy**. U.S. courts and commentators came to assert that a corporation’s primary purpose is to serve its shareholders’ financial interests. As one observer quips, corporations are essentially “selfish entities with the goal of maximizing shareholder profit”【26†L97-L101】. In business theory this is often treated like an implicit algorithm: given resources, the corporation must calculate choices that increase profit. Milton Friedman and others famously contended that corporations have “no higher purpose” than to increase shareholders’ money, because anything else would “undermine the foundation of our free society.” This framing – that profit is the core algorithmic objective – has been embedded in many corporate charters and governance rules.

- **Shareholder primacy norm:** Since the early 20th century (e.g. *Dodge v. Ford*, Friedman), U.S. law has often assumed corporations exist “primarily for the profit of the stockholders”【15†L142-L149】【26†L97-L101】.

- **Profit as algorithmic goal:** Commentators describe a firm’s behavior as though it follows a profit-maximizing algorithm【26†L97-L101】. Any ideology or data (“meme” in Dawkins’ terms) that can be codified might theoretically drive a corporation’s decisions, but in practice the dominant “payload” has been shareholder return【26†L97-L101】.

- **Structural incentives:** Crucially, market competition enforces this profit rule. As one critique observes, “Profit-making is the corporation’s obligation, and the primary methods of fulfilling it all have anti-social effects”【40†L227-L236】. In practice this means cutting labor costs, lobbying against regulation, price-gouging, and exploiting new markets – all to boost earnings. **In effect, the “algorithm” of corporate law is profit maximization, and corporate actors are the computation engines.**

Modern corporate charters mirror this by design. They typically impose no higher social or environmental purpose than making money. For example, Delaware law requires only that a corporation’s charter state a lawful purpose; by default this implies *any* activity lawful under general corporation law is fair game【33†L50-L58】. The real “coding” is in governance: boards and executives are understood (de facto, if not always de jure) to be compelled to prioritize returns. Thus today’s corporations operate much like advanced black-box AI: given vast data and authority, their decision‐process optimizes a defined objective (profit/shareholder value) above all else.

## Corporate Personhood and Political Power

Legally, corporations have enjoyed personhood – a status that amplifies their agency. They “hold property, enter contracts, and sue and be sued just like a human being”【38†L225-L233】. Over time courts extended this fiction into constitutional territory, granting corporations many rights akin to citizens (albeit without bodies). The result is that these “artificial persons” exercise power in realms once reserved for individuals or the state.

- **Constitutional Rights:** Landmark cases (e.g. *Citizens United v. FEC*) affirmed that corporations enjoy free-speech rights comparable to real persons【49†L17-L24】. In practice, this means corporations can spend unlimited money in politics to “enhance the bottom line” (e.g. lobbying, campaign ads), often without disclosing which of their “stakeholders” is funding it【49†L17-L24】.

- **Chartered Authority:** In earlier eras, companies were given astonishing authority by charter. The Royal African Company’s 1663 charter even empowered it to enforce its monopoly by naval force: it could “attach, arrest, take and seize all manner of ships, [Negro] slaves, goods, wares and merchandise whatsoever” brought to Africa in violation of its rights【31†L731-L739】. In effect, it wielded quasi-governmental powers of search, seizure and colonial rule. (Similarly, the East India Company raised armies and collected taxes in India on behalf of the Crown.)

- **Modern Dominion:** Today’s multinationals similarly operate above the public fray. As one analysis warns, the “rapid integration of AI into corporate decision making” combined with unchecked corporate political influence risks surrendering “political sovereignty to artificially intelligent corporations”【49†L31-L37】. In practical terms, important policy decisions happen behind boardroom doors or via regulatory capture, not through open democratic debate【49†L17-L24】【49†L31-L37】. Corporations effectively decide how algorithms are deployed (in their operations or lobbying), and citizens have little recourse – much as if we were dealing with an alien intelligence with its own will.

## Case Studies: Corporate Incentives and Socio-Ecological Harms

History offers many examples of corporations following their profit “algorithm” at the expense of people and the planet:

- **Slave Trade and Colonial Exploitation:** European chartered companies ran the Atlantic slave trade and colonial thuggery as corporate enterprises. The 1663 Royal Adventurers charter (above) treated African human beings as tradeable goods【46†L42-L48】. Likewise, under the East India Company, profit-driven policies (like grain speculation) contributed to famines (e.g. over a million Bengalis died in the late 1700s)【12†L169-L177】. In short, the “AGI” of corporate charter produced mass murder and displacement whenever it was lucrative.

- **Labor Abuses:** Profit-driven firms have repeatedly cut corners on worker safety. In 2013 the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing over 1,100 laborers; the tragedy has been tied to global brands’ pressure for ultra-cheap clothing. In Victorian England, mine and factory owners (themselves corporate shareholders) used child labor and prison labor as cost-saving measures【40†L199-L204】. Each disaster was an outcome of the ingrained corporate logic: cut costs and maximize output.

- **Environmental Destruction:** Resource-extraction corporations have driven ecological collapse. Oil companies (e.g. Exxon, Shell) famously suppressed climate science to protect fossil profits【40†L199-L204】. Agribusiness and logging firms continue razing rainforests and pumping carbon as long as it pays. The corporate AGI of profit has no built-in concern for sustainability; only external rules can (partially) constrain it.

- **Public Health Crises:** Even in medicine and consumer goods, profit motives cause harm. The opioid epidemic in the U.S. has been linked to pharmaceutical companies (and their executives) aggressively marketing addictive painkillers while downplaying risks【40†L203-L206】. In each case above, the responsible corporations acted predictably: they optimized sales and market share by any means (marketing, lobbying, ignoring safety), consistent with their embedded algorithm of shareholder gain.

As one commentator bluntly notes, “Corporations have always sacrificed people at the altar of profit”【40†L193-L202】. The list is long – slave voyages, factory fires, famine, pollution – all in service of the same programmed goal. When millions of dollars are involved, the corporate computation invariably chooses profit over social welfare, unless legal constraints force another choice.

## Conclusion: Confronting the “Artificial” in Corporations

Viewing corporations as a kind of **institutional AGI** highlights their vast autonomy and fixed objectives. These entities are “artificial” only in that their identity is a legal construct – but in practice they behave like super-intelligent agents programmed to pursue profit. From royal charters through modern corporate law, their architecture and incentives have remained remarkably consistent. The power of these entities is such that, as one analysis warns, we may be on the verge of ceding “political sovereignty to artificially intelligent corporations”【49†L31-L37】 unless governance is reformed.

In other words, generations of corporate law have given us a non-human optimizer embedded in our social system. Acknowledging this history means recognizing that our society’s ‘master algorithm’ has long been corporate profit maximization. If we truly seek a sustainable and equitable future, we must rethink these arrangements. That starts with treating corporations as the powerful institutional intelligences they are – with incentives and constraints – rather than as neutral backdrops. Only by rewriting the “algorithm” (through laws, charters, and norms that value people and ecology) can we ensure these artificial entities serve human well-being rather than undermining it【40†L227-L236】【49†L31-L37】.

**Sources:** Historical charters (Royal African Company, Virginia Company, East India Company) are documented in colonial records and analyses【46†L42-L48】【44†L62-L70】【12†L159-L167】. Corporate personhood and law are explained in legal histories【38†L225-L233】【49†L17-L24】. Commentators on corporate purpose and harms provide contemporary analysis of profit-maximization and its effects【26†L97-L101】【40†L193-L202】【40†L227-L236】【49†L31-L37】.

I'm starting with Tom Baker arbitrarily and once you get into it the story and acting can pull the weight that the special effects lack. There are so many seasons of that show if your looking for something to unwind with. I know people are looking for something dependable, and it's clear Trek for the foreseeable future isn't that. In theory you could cancel the sub for Trek if money gets tight and swap to this show until they get their act together.