Liebe Freunde! The time has come to lay some myths to rest. Techno optimism in its many flavors has ravaged through our technical community and spread some good ideas together with some very bad ones. We must fight back against them as the Faction of Truth in order to prevent delusion and willful blindness from seeping into our strategy.
The above video was made by the excellent Kiki (@kikisknees on the X) - check him out for more riveting edits!
In this radio wave transmission, I discuss in five segments the following topics:
00:00:00 Initial chit chat and recent news in the tech world to warm ourselves up.
00:16:39 Reading Marc Andreesen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto with a critical eye and bringing answers from several sources such as Spengler, Land, und so weiter.
01:10:29 Contrasting with Curtis Yarvin’s Techno-Pessimist Manifesto and pulling out some fascinating counterpoints (warning: may hurt feelings).
01:48:24 Analyzing Beff Jezos’ e/acc Manifesto and breaking down the entire worldview and thesis - then, discussing e/acc as phenomenon online and where it all went wrong. This segment is a real spanking.
02:47:13 A description of the budding hard-tech ecosystem in El Segundo and some friendly advice and warning words for my Californian colleagues.
Episode notes and mentions:
Bad Samaritans by Ha-Joon Chang: Link to Amazon
The Techno-Optimist Manifesto (Marc Andreesen)
A techno-pessimist manifesto (Curtis Yarvin)
Techno Bipolarity - Optimism and Pessimism