@theluddite have you read https://www.publicbooks.org/the-folly-of-technological-solutionism-an-interview-with-evgeny-morozov/
There are no original thoughts :D.
I hadn’t heard of the book when I wrote this, but a reader brought it to my attention after I posted it. Seems like a delightful and closely related critique. I really look forward to reading it soon, especially after seeing this interview and his opinions on the Quantified Self movement; I’ve made a similar argument in a post about tech companies obsessing with engagement metrics being a science cargo cult.
It seems his focus is more on the internet, and how it was supposed to just solve our problems in some weird, politically neutral, neoliberal-brain-rot way. I tried to focus more on the (forgive me for using this word) Muskian, capitalist millenerianism of it all. In some ways, I think his critique is even more damning. What he describes as solutionism is such a flat and sad worldview. At least Musk and his fellow con artists talk a big game, as hollow as it might be.
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