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https://theconversation.com/a-new-silicon-valley-manifesto-reveals-the-bleak-dangerous-philosophy-driving-the-tech-industry-216894>
"In 1993, Marc Andreessen was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign, where he also worked at the US-government funded National
Center for Supercomputing Applications. With a colleague, the young software
engineer authored the Mosaic web browser, which set the standard for cruising
the information superhighway in the 1990s.
Andreessen went on to cofound Netscape Communications, making a fortune in 1999
when the company was acquired by AOL for US$4.3 billion.
Since then, through his venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, the outspoken
billionaire has become one of the most influential wallets in Silicon Valley.
His investments – in companies including Facebook, Foursquare, Github, Lyft,
Oculus and Twitter – have definitively shaped tech over the past 15 years. (He
once described his approach as “funding imperial, will-to-power people”.)
Because of all this, it’s worth paying attention to Andreessen’s recent
“techno-optimist manifesto”. Opening with the claim that “we are being lied
to”, the lengthy blog post takes in a section on “becoming technological
supermen”, musings on the meaning of life, and a long list of enemies. It
offers a revealing glimpse into the philosophy of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs,
where more technology is the only way forward – and a warning about the kind of
world they’re trying to build."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
