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
