Google in February last year updated its AI policies to remove its pledges not to apply the technology to weapons or surveillance, saying it needed to evolve to help democratically elected governments keep up in the global battle for AI dominance

Inspired by a warped reading of the political philosopher Albert Hirschman, figures including Goff, Thiel and the investor and writer Balaji Srinivasan have been championing what they call “exit” – the principle that those with means have the right to walk away from the obligations of citizenship, especially taxes and burdensome regulation. Retooling and rebranding the old ambitions and privileges of empires, they dream of splintering governments and carving up the world into hyper-capitalist, democracy-free havens under the sole control of the supremely wealthy, protected by private mercenaries, serviced by AI robots and financed by cryptocurrencies.

Western yoga existed in uncomfortably close proximity to various strands of extreme right-wing thought