We don’t have to look too deeply into history to find parallels to this kind of worldview. Simply put, it is the worldview of colonialism: it sees both nature and other people as domains to be conquered and exploited for “growth”.
It’s en vogue to harp on Silicon Valley, but this is just unfettered capitalism. It’s not just happening there.
The only thing scary about the manifesto is how much power people like Marc Andreeson have amassed despite seeming to have all the wisdom, awareness, and ability to compose an essay of a high school kid. He even says “elites” as if Silicon Valley billionaires aren’t included.
So, I’m not sure how people are reading parallels to history in it. It’s not really deep enough for all that. (If you want to do that, all you need is that Tweet where he said “Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people” when India chose net neutrality over Facebook‘s scheme to privilege its own traffic.)
All this reveals some of what Silicon Valley entrepreneurs really think of the rest of the world, and of us (non-techno-optimists).…of what A SINGLE Silicon Valley entrepreneur really thinks. I don’t think this one guy was voted to speak for all Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
It’s a secular apocalypse cult. There’s a good episode of Team Human about it. https://www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/257-emile-p-torres
Thank you for sharing this. new thinking for me to explore.
There’s nothing substantive to this criticism. It’s just “do you know who else was optimistic about progress? The bad guys!”
As it turns out, all life is colonialist due to its propensity to view the universe as a place to grow into
There’s a lot in that manifesto I agree with, but man does he really try hard to intertwine unlimited growth capitalism and the benefits of technology without actually drawing any lines between them. Being optimistic that technology is and will be a net benefit to humanity sure as fuck doesn’t mean I believe that we “grow or die.” And of course, he’s speaking economically, not like figurative growth of mind and culture.
Our present society has been subjected to a mass demoralization campaign for six decades – against technology and against life – under varying names like “existential risk”, “sustainability”, “ESG”, “Sustainable Development Goals”, “social responsibility”, “stakeholder capitalism”, “Precautionary Principle”, “trust and safety”, “tech ethics”, “risk management”, “de-growth”, “the limits of growth”.
This demoralization campaign is based on bad ideas of the past – zombie ideas, many derived from Communism, disastrous then and now – that have refused to die.
Though this is dumb as fuck. Spent the entire time arguing that economic and technological systems are somehow inherently beneficial but somehow these systems are evil. Completely ignoring that they’re all human constructs that have no inherent benefits.
