This framing makes a common error — being critical of extractive and exploitative technology *is* optimism. Saying that new tech shouldn’t happen at the expense of the vulnerable *is* an optimistic belief. Those who perpetuate the myth that criticism is anti-tech are the cynics.
https://twitter.com/sama/status/1489648210842816516
Take a look at people cyncially promoting web3 — when critics (rightly!) point out that grift and scams and exploitation are rampant, their reaction is to say “all new technologies have lots of scams”. It’s a lie, but it’s also pessimism and a pathetic acceptance of failure.
When critics point out that gig economy apps exploit workers and undermine their financial and social stability, the cynics say “that’s just the price of innovation” instead of imagining a future where innovation helps those who need it most.
When critics point out harmful working conditions or moral failures from tech leaders, cynics respond by destroying journalists who tell the truth (as Thiel did) or having their PR team attempt to swat critics and get them killed (as Musk did). That’s not optimism, it’s nihilism.
When critics say tech tycoons can pay their fair share of taxes in order to support the society that makes their successes possible — especially when nearly every major breakthrough was underwritten by public funds — *that* is techno-optimism.
Defining “tech” as the handful of platforms funded and run by an old boys’ network of Silicon Valley insiders, and then defining optimism as “accepting and encouraging some of the most socially and politically destructive forces of our time” is a lie, a damnable lie.
Being powerfully critical of tech is the only real optimism. Everything else is just trying to make money on failure.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
