“We yearn to reprogram existence, and with the computer we have the best means yet. We would like to see this project as heroic, as a rebellion against the tyranny of an alien power. But it’s not that at all. It’s a project born of anxiety. Behind it lies a dread that the messy, atomic world will rebel against us. What Silicon Valley sells and we buy is not transcendence but withdrawal. The screen provides a refuge, a mediated world that is more predictable, more tractable, and above all safer than the recalcitrant world of things. We flock to the virtual because the real demands too much of us.” – The internet as an engine of liberation is an innocent fraud – Nicholas Carr | Aeon Essays
silicon valley
“What Silicon Valley sells and we buy is not transcendence but withdrawal. We flock to the virtual because the real demands too much of us” – The internet as an engine of liberation is an innocent fraud – Nicholas Carr | Aeon Essays
“There are widespread rumors in Silicon Valley, where life-extension science is a popular obsession, that various wealthy individuals from the tech world have already begun practicing parabiosis, spending tens of thousands of dollars for the procedures and young-person-blood, and repeating the exercise several times a year.” – Peter Thiel Is Very, Very Interested in Young People’s Blood
“There are widespread rumors in Silicon Valley, where life-extension science is a popular obsession, that various wealthy individuals from the tech world have already begun practicing parabiosis, spending tens of thousands of dollars for the procedures and young-person-blood, and repeating the exercise several times a year.” – Peter Thiel Is Very, Very Interested in Young People’s Blood
“A guy in his living room with $6 billion can have a normatively bad idea about what to do, and do real damage to normal, ordinary everyday humans.” – Why Silicon Valley Hates TBD Catalog
“Al Gore: Okay, so governments — that’s one threat. But, business are collecting way more information than they should. We now have a stalker economy where customers become products. And I’m not the first one to say that.” – Al Gore says Silicon Valley is a “stalker economy”
Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World by Christopher Steiner
Book Review: A story about the rise of bots and hackers on Wall Street and how the exodus to Silicon Valley is too late to change the rule of algorithms. more