The Mechanics of Control

Processing Centers, Servers, and the Cattle Industry

With Cyber Corp, we were sidestepping the touchpoints. Back in those stock market days, once traders hit that buy button, space and time bended within a split-second. At Cyber Corp, we were the ones allowing this. We took out every touchpoint.

You can envision the environment. Imagine a day trader sitting there. We’d invite them to test our software. Just a room away lay the server room. Can you visualize it? A day trader, about to buy IBM, and then it happened—click!

The moment that mouse clicked, it set in motion a sequence of events, like a line of dominos falling. But where did this domino effect lead? To the server. Ever wonder why it’s called a server? It serves your commands on both ends; it puts other parties in communication.

---

---

That’s why I like to think about what we were doing back then at Cyber Corp in Austin in analogy to what we are doing now with the Beef Initiative.

What exactly are the servers, in the analogy I have in mind? They are the processing centers, the facilities where cattle are slaughtered, processed, and transformed. I like to think of the processing center as the place in which the genetic code of the animal is broken down into a way that can be turned into energy for the consumer.

But when it comes to these processing centers, who is truly in control? An overwhelming 85% of them are under the dominion of four national corporations. Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef.

So, what does the term “server” mean in the context of the beef industry today? It refers to these immense multinational processing centers. And how much red tape you need to cut through to access that master server? How many transactions must occur before you arrive where you intended? Well, these multinational processing centers are riddled with gateways, regulation, rules, and touchpoints, like an intricate labyrinth.

---

---