That's an interesting way of connecting the two articles. Indeed, there have been priestly and secular technocracies. The latter might be especially dangerous because technological manipulations are more hidden, buried in the program, as we see from the algorithms that govern the internet and social media.

Jaron Lanier makes a good case for putting tighter regulations on the software companies, but the chances of that happening in the US are slim to none. We're talking about monopolies in a society in which progressive values have waned.