I am a technologist and believed for the longest time that the Valley elite had some insight that I lacked, some special brilliance that meant they understood things I did not and that their claims were therefore credible.
I no longer believe this.
The truth is that they are like the average students of an elite private university: Convinced of their own brilliance, entitled, and... not very good.
My fault was being so credulous that I took their incessant talking about their own genius at face value, when it was really just a huge warning sign.
We are now in a kind of cultural war of attrition. We have to engage this nonsense at some level as long as what the cryptolibertarians are doing is having real-world consequences.
So, sadly, somebody intelligent and informed and thoughtful has to read this stuff. I'm glad it did not have to be me and thank you for your sacrifice.
I'm guessing he's going to have a new book out before long focusing on AI and the Blockchain. I spent my career in the software world. I met many intelligent techies with suspect social skills, little wisdom, and a firm conviction they knew it all and everyone else was an idiot. I could see them working for Doge. I met a smaller group of folks who saw themselves as "entrepreneurs", a term vocalized in a shuddering reverent voice. Those dudes, and they were all dudes, were a class by themselves. I saw a comment once about a Hollywood producer being an ego in search of a room big enough to hold it. That would apply to these guys by and large. I bet the Professor is right, they read Rand and "know" they are Makers and the rest of us are Subjects. :-)
I'm currently reading Jonathan Taplin's THE END OF REALITY, which focuses on the visions (such as they are) of Musk, Zuckerberg, Andreesen, and Thiel. They're Tech Bros too. They have plenty in common with Srinivasan, but maybe the biggest thing they have in common is that *they're all men.* XY-chromosome people. And like so many XY-chromosome people they have no idea what, or rather *who*, generally holds communities and whole societies together. Let you in on a secret, guys: it's the XX-chromosome people. Women.
I'm reminded of the classic SF story "The Women Men Don't See" (1973), by the late James Tiptree Jr., aka Alice Sheldon. Fifty years later it seems some men still aren't seeing very well.
You might gather from my nom de plume, that I am a fan of the anime and manga series.
These themes are reminiscent of the themes found in the original anime movie and TV series, but as a farce, rather than a medium for discussing society and probably the nature of Japanese society..
The Network State really lowered my respect for Balaji. A respect that started as a mixture of a source of creative insight but also outright narcissistic excess. The Network State completely flipped the knob for me on the latter. Any "creative insight" from him I have since popped in my mental Pizzagate folder.
I even somewhat tepidly mocked him over his premises on The Network State on his Substack at the time, joking in a comment that the government of land and hard goods -- e.g., California -- isn't real but just a physical service to all of us living in the cloud.
He started continually nudging my comment online to draw attention and follow up with him. It was a weird behavior, having him effectively recreate the Facebook poke on me for 4-5 iterations. But considering the typical peeps on the Internet, it was more cute than belligerent and sociopathic.
And that's when I learned that he just started started his "The Network School" university in Singapore in an effort to help legitimize his childish idea that land no longer matters. I really believe he thought he could convince me that he wasn't registering as a delusional Silicon Valley exec with bird feathers glued to his arms yelling, "Look! I can fly!" before jumping off the roof of his house.
And don't get me started on his blue vs red revolution fever dream...
As I commented on yet another Substack, desire for a life decoupled from responsibility will naturally lead one to Balaji Srinivasan's Network State and Ross Ulbricht's MurderNet.
I'm also guessing this guy has read Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age decades ago and that misremembered remnants are still haunting his mind. Stephenson actually had a documented interaction with Musk and it's possible Musk's obsession with the 'multi-planetary species' may be anchored in Stephenson's "Seveneves" where humanity is forced to evacuate earth.
Quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer's On Stupidity versus Malice: "There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid."
Note that he is right to assume a society in the end is based on 'shared convictions'. Stop — as a society — believing in the importance of a rule of law, or the importance of protecting the weak, etc., and it disappears. Existing nation/state or not.
Out tech overlords really are, much like Trump (maybe inspired by him?) trying as hard as they can to tell us exactly what they are. Previous billionaires felt some twinge of nobliss oblige, but these guys are not even bothering anymore. Crypto, unlike VR and Web 3.0, is the Next Big Thing that refuses to die. If any 1 thing brings about the inevitable economic crisis sooner than later, it will be the idiotic Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. That would be a payday than not even a multi-billionaire can afford to turn his nose up at, and it would make a lot of billionaires-on-paper "real" billionaires.
I didn't realize just how incredibly ridiculous the Tech Barons and Balaji are. Reading your post made me think of Gaiman's American Gods, especially Technical Boy, and the incredible skill it takes to imagine and build a believable possible world. Sounds like Balaji offers little more than regressive, reactionary, unimaginative, familiar authoritarianism spoken up with silicon valley boy accent.
What all these coddled, unaccountable, blinkered tech bros have in common is they either reject, don’t understand, or have never heard of the concept of “The Social Contract.” They’ve all benefited from whatever social contract existed in whatever society they made their fortunes. They’ve climbed the ladder and now pull it up after themselves stating ladders are both unfair and probably never even existed. Their lives are narcissistic fantasies. And we all pay the price.
The ultrarich never think this through. History is lit with empires and nations, falling into absolute ruin because of the folly nobility.
Their wealth insulates them from the consequences of their behavior. When Rome finally unraveled and was sacked by so-called barbarians, already the wealthiest family patricians had for many decades been abandoning the city for the countryside for their own personal fiefdoms. When Rome lost it, finally, Europe dissolved into a tapestry of nation states, and it dissolved into a tapestry of centuries of bloodshed, in warfare.
Aristocracy becomes addicted to peer contests of opulence and glory often in war. It was their their subjects that were charged with the actual sordid business of fighting and dying, and sending all the efforts of their labor to providing for this exercise in ego.
The AGI arms raised to forge this imagine digital one ring is the same thing. People keep saying that we’re living in the world menaced by a rising oligarchy. They don’t understand. It’s here. It’s been here for decades. We live in a global plutocracy.
They already have every physical needs satisfied. But that’s never enough for an aristocracy never enough. It has never been. The consequences has always been civilization destruction.
How do these people differ from the ones who declare they don't have to pay taxes because they declared an independent state? I mean, except for having so much money people take them seriously instead of leaving them to the mercy of the IRS. I don't think this even rises to the level of Ayn Rand.
Also, thank you for reading and critiquing this so we don't have to. We need to know about these people -- witness the DOGE (pronounced dodgy) kiddies running amok. But I lack the strength.
The main difference is indeed just access to capital and the levers of power. Sovereign Citizens (to my knowledge at least) tend to be militia-types. They can set up their own backwoods communities, but they can't, like, try to buy the San Francisco government and/or the entirety of Solano County.
I am a technologist and believed for the longest time that the Valley elite had some insight that I lacked, some special brilliance that meant they understood things I did not and that their claims were therefore credible.
I no longer believe this.
The truth is that they are like the average students of an elite private university: Convinced of their own brilliance, entitled, and... not very good.
My fault was being so credulous that I took their incessant talking about their own genius at face value, when it was really just a huge warning sign.
We are now in a kind of cultural war of attrition. We have to engage this nonsense at some level as long as what the cryptolibertarians are doing is having real-world consequences.
So, sadly, somebody intelligent and informed and thoughtful has to read this stuff. I'm glad it did not have to be me and thank you for your sacrifice.
These guys make me so, so very tired.
I'm guessing he's going to have a new book out before long focusing on AI and the Blockchain. I spent my career in the software world. I met many intelligent techies with suspect social skills, little wisdom, and a firm conviction they knew it all and everyone else was an idiot. I could see them working for Doge. I met a smaller group of folks who saw themselves as "entrepreneurs", a term vocalized in a shuddering reverent voice. Those dudes, and they were all dudes, were a class by themselves. I saw a comment once about a Hollywood producer being an ego in search of a room big enough to hold it. That would apply to these guys by and large. I bet the Professor is right, they read Rand and "know" they are Makers and the rest of us are Subjects. :-)
We ought to take them seriously; we ought to laugh in their faces.
The perfect semicolon!
I'm currently reading Jonathan Taplin's THE END OF REALITY, which focuses on the visions (such as they are) of Musk, Zuckerberg, Andreesen, and Thiel. They're Tech Bros too. They have plenty in common with Srinivasan, but maybe the biggest thing they have in common is that *they're all men.* XY-chromosome people. And like so many XY-chromosome people they have no idea what, or rather *who*, generally holds communities and whole societies together. Let you in on a secret, guys: it's the XX-chromosome people. Women.
I'm reminded of the classic SF story "The Women Men Don't See" (1973), by the late James Tiptree Jr., aka Alice Sheldon. Fifty years later it seems some men still aren't seeing very well.
Dave 1000%. You say it better than I did — this book has note aged well, and it’s crazy ppl like Musk, Sacks, Andreesen, Calacanis etc think Balaji is a genius. https://open.substack.com/pub/theconnector/p/the-siren-song-of-bitcoin-libertarianism?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
You might gather from my nom de plume, that I am a fan of the anime and manga series.
These themes are reminiscent of the themes found in the original anime movie and TV series, but as a farce, rather than a medium for discussing society and probably the nature of Japanese society..
Do yourself a favor and read Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by Jason Pargin if you haven't already.
Oh nice, adding it to the list. I read I'm Starting to Worry about This Black Box of Doom a few months ago, that was great!
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits is the better of the two in my opinion.
Pretty much my assessment when I read it in 2022.
The Network State really lowered my respect for Balaji. A respect that started as a mixture of a source of creative insight but also outright narcissistic excess. The Network State completely flipped the knob for me on the latter. Any "creative insight" from him I have since popped in my mental Pizzagate folder.
I even somewhat tepidly mocked him over his premises on The Network State on his Substack at the time, joking in a comment that the government of land and hard goods -- e.g., California -- isn't real but just a physical service to all of us living in the cloud.
He started continually nudging my comment online to draw attention and follow up with him. It was a weird behavior, having him effectively recreate the Facebook poke on me for 4-5 iterations. But considering the typical peeps on the Internet, it was more cute than belligerent and sociopathic.
And that's when I learned that he just started started his "The Network School" university in Singapore in an effort to help legitimize his childish idea that land no longer matters. I really believe he thought he could convince me that he wasn't registering as a delusional Silicon Valley exec with bird feathers glued to his arms yelling, "Look! I can fly!" before jumping off the roof of his house.
And don't get me started on his blue vs red revolution fever dream...
As I commented on yet another Substack, desire for a life decoupled from responsibility will naturally lead one to Balaji Srinivasan's Network State and Ross Ulbricht's MurderNet.
I'm also guessing this guy has read Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age decades ago and that misremembered remnants are still haunting his mind. Stephenson actually had a documented interaction with Musk and it's possible Musk's obsession with the 'multi-planetary species' may be anchored in Stephenson's "Seveneves" where humanity is forced to evacuate earth.
The poison of delusion.
Also see Max Barry's _Jennifer Government_ for a slightly more playful approach
Quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer's On Stupidity versus Malice: "There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid."
Note that he is right to assume a society in the end is based on 'shared convictions'. Stop — as a society — believing in the importance of a rule of law, or the importance of protecting the weak, etc., and it disappears. Existing nation/state or not.
Out tech overlords really are, much like Trump (maybe inspired by him?) trying as hard as they can to tell us exactly what they are. Previous billionaires felt some twinge of nobliss oblige, but these guys are not even bothering anymore. Crypto, unlike VR and Web 3.0, is the Next Big Thing that refuses to die. If any 1 thing brings about the inevitable economic crisis sooner than later, it will be the idiotic Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. That would be a payday than not even a multi-billionaire can afford to turn his nose up at, and it would make a lot of billionaires-on-paper "real" billionaires.
If this is what micro dosing does, count me the fuck out.
I didn't realize just how incredibly ridiculous the Tech Barons and Balaji are. Reading your post made me think of Gaiman's American Gods, especially Technical Boy, and the incredible skill it takes to imagine and build a believable possible world. Sounds like Balaji offers little more than regressive, reactionary, unimaginative, familiar authoritarianism spoken up with silicon valley boy accent.
What all these coddled, unaccountable, blinkered tech bros have in common is they either reject, don’t understand, or have never heard of the concept of “The Social Contract.” They’ve all benefited from whatever social contract existed in whatever society they made their fortunes. They’ve climbed the ladder and now pull it up after themselves stating ladders are both unfair and probably never even existed. Their lives are narcissistic fantasies. And we all pay the price.
The ultrarich never think this through. History is lit with empires and nations, falling into absolute ruin because of the folly nobility.
Their wealth insulates them from the consequences of their behavior. When Rome finally unraveled and was sacked by so-called barbarians, already the wealthiest family patricians had for many decades been abandoning the city for the countryside for their own personal fiefdoms. When Rome lost it, finally, Europe dissolved into a tapestry of nation states, and it dissolved into a tapestry of centuries of bloodshed, in warfare.
Aristocracy becomes addicted to peer contests of opulence and glory often in war. It was their their subjects that were charged with the actual sordid business of fighting and dying, and sending all the efforts of their labor to providing for this exercise in ego.
The AGI arms raised to forge this imagine digital one ring is the same thing. People keep saying that we’re living in the world menaced by a rising oligarchy. They don’t understand. It’s here. It’s been here for decades. We live in a global plutocracy.
They already have every physical needs satisfied. But that’s never enough for an aristocracy never enough. It has never been. The consequences has always been civilization destruction.
How do these people differ from the ones who declare they don't have to pay taxes because they declared an independent state? I mean, except for having so much money people take them seriously instead of leaving them to the mercy of the IRS. I don't think this even rises to the level of Ayn Rand.
Also, thank you for reading and critiquing this so we don't have to. We need to know about these people -- witness the DOGE (pronounced dodgy) kiddies running amok. But I lack the strength.
The main difference is indeed just access to capital and the levers of power. Sovereign Citizens (to my knowledge at least) tend to be militia-types. They can set up their own backwoods communities, but they can't, like, try to buy the San Francisco government and/or the entirety of Solano County.