> If that happens, hardware trust becomes non-verifiable.

Unfortunately I already have to run a binary blob just to play fps games from 10 years ago. I can't even load a new OS onto my phone anymore.

Ultimately I'm not sure hardware sourced from China changes the trust equation very much, at least for me individually. I have much more concern about the FBI, which has recently decided to ramp up investigations into queer people [0][1][2], than I do about foreign powers - at least as long as it's not actively destructive malware or something.

> We will also see talent pipeline erosion.

We absolutely will, and to some degree I wonder if we aren't already with how popular tablets and phones are. I've noticed many young people these days don't really know how to interact with anything on a computer that isn't an app. GPUs and RAM becoming more significantly more expensive will take a huge chunk out of the hobby market and in doing so they will intensify the pipeline erosion.

[0] https://www.advocate.com/politics/pam-bondi-trans-equality-b... [1] https://ncac.org/news/advocacy-isnt-terrorism [2] https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/09/26/us-trump-targets-opponen...

Is it verifiable now?

Fair question. The technocrats are less than trustworthy.

Non-verifiable by what standards?

Modern GPU's often have on device firmware, secure boot chains, microcontrollers, etc. If you don't control silicon design, firmware signing and update pipelines you can't meaningfully attest to what the advice is doing.

But for most of us, that's already the case, isn't it?

For the average paranoid person who is wasting their life on it, sure

But large organizations like defense are all about distributed trust anyway - even if you could verify the hardware, the guy you order to do it is going to be a whole command chain removed and likely a contractor with a clearance in the civilian world.

Whereas your high level political and military leadership having direct contact with managers and designers in production facilities is extremely valuable.

What if my high level political and military leadership are the threat scenario?

Remember Snowden.

Or more likely you're just not that important and will be imprisoned without cause because close enough is good enough.

People always seem to imagine tyranny worries about a standard of evidence. Tyranny has arrest quotas, evidence optional.