Reach of the tech giants: Controlling all aspects of our future

Google has taken a 60-year lease on a Nasa airfield next to its Silicon Valley headquarters near San Francisco.

A Google subsidiary called Planetary Ventures will use part of the historic Moffett Federal Airfield for projects involving aviation, space exploration and robotics. This may seem like a harmless indulgence by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin who have a well-known interest in aviation and space.

But it could also represent a scary escalation of attempts by major cash-rich multinationals to control everything about our lives. The robotics, satellite and space ventures follow Google’s move into health care and medical equipment, areas normally associated with government projects.