Rescuing the Future from Silicon Valley

Justin Hendrix is CEO and Editor of Tech Policy Press. Views expressed here are his own. Mark Zuckerberg (left) and Elon Musk (right). This summer, two of Silicon Valley’s richest and most prominent figures, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, have indulged in a contest of egos. These supposed visionaries have challenged each other to a cage match — with Musk further suggesting that they settle their quarrel with a “literal dick measuring contest.”  Even in jest, the mental image of these men– worth a combined $350 billion– comparing their penises is revolting. Yet this episode perfectly underscores the excesses and shallow preoccupations that have come to define Silicon Valley. It serves as a stark reminder of the misplaced priorities and moral bankruptcy that can emerge when power, wealth, and hubris converge, particularly in the form of white male billionaires.  The Musk-Zuckerberg spectacle, while stupid, is clarifying — it reveals the extent to which Silicon Valley has abandoned even the veneer of its purported mission of advancing humanity and solving the pressing challenges of our time. This is not the age of Silicon Valley innovation. It is the age of Silicon Valley bullshit. There is an honesty in laying that reality bare. While readers of Tech Policy Press may be concerned about the health of democracy and the effects of technology on society, men like Musk and Zuckerberg treat such things as fundamentally no more important than their farcical feud. Musk has more than destroyed Twitter as a constructive environment for…Rescuing the Future from Silicon Valley