Techno-optimism is a dangerous philosophy whose adherents espouse the blind faith that market capitalism and technology will solve the world’s problems. In reality, this kind of optimism simply justifies elite power and promotes indifference to human suffering.
Longtermism is Silicon Valleys’ own retooling of purchasing indulgences from the church, except they don’t pay anybody. Dismiss it for your own sanity. Every one of these people writing these manifestos and Forbes think pieces are all going to die like the rest of us, covered in mud and shit and worms. They will not conjure post-scarcity, they will not (safely) help the population cap out at 50 billion, and they will never take our species to space. And if one of these slugs makes it into cyberspace, the proletariat have a duty to melt the servers containing their mind with fucking thermite. Death to the God emperors. Let them die stillborn rather than escape earth. FUCK “longtermism”.
At this point the US government would rather nuke all major US cities and rule over ashes than ever allow an alternative system to our failed Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism to take hold.
Given that, it makes sense why so many people choose to believe in the lie that the rich people will create technology that will save us all from the rich people. Most don’t see any other choice.
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”
- Ursula K. Le Guin.
Have you seen the series Jericho? As I recall that was turning out to be who nuked the major cities at the start of the show, a conspiracy to consolidate control. Then it was cancelled just as the populace was becoming aware of the reality. Much like Deadwood.
Fucking hate Andreson and other tech billionaires. That was an insane list of ideals. However I do believe tech is our salvation under socialism, and necessary to change our material conditions enough to make socialism inevitable.
I totally agree. I’m optimistic about technology once we escape capitalism. Under socialism automation and technology make everyone’s lives easier. e.g. the classic example of a technology that allows workers to be 2x more productive would mean the workers all keep their jobs and pay, but work half as much under socialism, but under capitalism half lose their job and the rest work just as much for the same pay.
That said, things like sustainability, social responsibility, and the other pieces of the “demoralization campaign” should absolutely be considered. They’re important.
So the question is, how should engineers behave and be treated under capitalism? I work on AI and hope it will be revolutionary and try to only take ethical work. I think we do have an opportunity to become post scarcity if we simultaneously educate and empower people to seize the new technologies. We need people to see it’s capacity and rise up politically in response to it.
you know a manifesto is good when it thinks stakeholder capitalism can be lumped in with the nebulous concepts of sustainability and social responsibility, and then further adds that “tech ethics” is “against technology and against life”:
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”.
really having a normal one, the “techno-optimists”