To me, Silicon Valley is a confusing beast. I’m not sure if this is remaining liberalism but there are some things about it (on the surface level) that I find admirable: it’s generally science-positive and is a beacon of intellectualism in the US, even if tech is not your cup of tea I like the idea of some people being in the “problem solving business”, and if I must participate in capitalism then working for a company that helps with sustainability in SV doesn’t sound too bad. Not ideal, but leagues more tolerable than working on an oil field.
However, this facade crumbles at even the quickest glance and it sometimes almost becomes just as nakedly reactionary as the oil and gas industry. Elon Musk is practically the poster child of Silicon Valley and was a lib that just needed one scratch to give up the ghost and go full fash. Silicon Valley is literally acting like an Ayn Rand villain. Silicon Valley has also practically soured my attitudes towards technology and some of that can be blamed on pretty much all new “innovations” just being inventing a new form of landlordism. Even many of the people in the supposed blue city are complete and utter fash, the whole thing feels like it’s permanently an 80s Wall Street movie but with tech.
Is there like any books that can better explain Silicon Valley and what it actually stands for?
That far back, many of the trust fund creeps that would become the billionaire vampires of our present day called themselves “extropians.” They had this quaint idea that they would defeat the two old-saying inevitabilities of death and taxes. They were already coming up with bullshit ideas for internet funny money and of course wanted to live forever as space overlords.
Not much changed decades later, except they’re older, richer, more powerful, and more afraid.