#59, silicon valley’s entrepreneurial capitalism leaves rubble in its wake
“Silicon Valley has their cake and wants to eat it too. The tools they create, promote, and that enrich them have been instrumental in creating the mess we are now in. These faux-populists claim that they and their tools are anti-institutional and countercultural, giving the people a voice and a choice and challenging the hegemony of mainstream institutions. But entrepreneurial capitalism is their only true religion and the only agent of change. As they congratulate themselves on changing the world, and on their hard work and entrepreneurial rigor, and as they dream of space travel, moon walks, eternal life, and superintelligence, they are blind and deaf to the rubble left in their wake: from rampant sexism in their companies, the autocratic rule of the white elite, increasing inequality, loss of jobs, to a bolstered and strengthened surveillance state and market. Deep in their hearts they know it is not likely to end well, and they have prepared their escape – from bunkers in New Zealand, to the sea and intergalactic travel.”
See More:
- “Doomsday Prep for the Superrich,” Evan Osnos
- Platform Capitalism, Nick Srnicek
- “Who owns the future? How the prophets of Silicon Valley took control,” Yuval Harari
- From counterculture to cyberculture, Fred Turner
- Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution, Wendy Brown
- “The Wealth of Dividuals,” Arjun Appadurai (in Derivatives and the Wealth of Societies, Lee Martin)
- “What the Gospel of Innovation Gets Wrong,” Jill Lepore
- “The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death,” Jia Tolentino
- #100hardtruths-#fakenews: a primer on digital media literacy
