A recording of my seminar "A Critical Theory of VC" www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhJy...

Huge thanks to @ojutel.bsky.social and folks in the Media, Film, and Community programme at U-Otago for helping me think through and refine the ideas contained here.

Check out my new article published @distinktionjournal.bsky.social on contrarianism as a cultural practice enabled by the institutional logic of Silicon Valley VC. Read it here (open access): www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Although Jaron might not approve of me using social media to express this — oops!

Having Jaron Lanier visit my Ethics and Technology class today to talk to my students was a real treat. Generous, thoughtful, and refreshingly optimistic - the class and I feel so very lucky to have had this opportunity.

What a time to be alive.

Hey folks — my friend Randy is running for congress in a Republican-held district and needs support. Randy is running a grassroots campaign but the Democratic establishment wants someone who will take corporate money. Please, if you’re able, consider chipping in:

secure.actblue.com/donate/callt...

I am very happy that my program is hosting @mrshoward.bsky.social in two weeks for a discussion of the role of contrarianism in the Silicon Valley founder/VC mythos. QR code for Zoom Deets

Part of the “selling point” is that investors and would-be entrepreneur-residents can just pick their legal code from a figurative dropdown.

Extra-judicial zone. So essentially has its own laws or lists of laws. With prospera for example, the only laws they were bound to were the Honduran constitution and criminal code. The rest is a free for all.

The so-called “cathedral” that Musk and others (following the writings of Curtis Yarvin and Nick Land) have set their targets on includes not just government, but the press and higher education. What appeared to be a batshit political theory just a few years ago is becoming a serious proposition.

Yes, but it’s often scholars who make things more complicated in the first place. I mean, that’s practically our job.

Digital proof-of-personhood (World ID) is the ultimate data tracking tool. Most countries/authorities have pushed back for this reason causing world to scale down those capabilities, but with Musk currently steamrolling the US gov.. the functionality remains a potentiality.

Nah. It’s just a catalyst for the ai arms race that investors in “Open”AI said they wanted to avoid. The private commercialization of AI was always inevitable, and so was an arms race. Buckle up, and don’t badmouth AI just in case it becomes self-aware and decides to kill you (and me!)

And so the FTC’s careers page has seemingly been deleted. That didn’t take long. It seems Silicon Valley’s cozying up to the incoming administration is already paying dividends. Prepare yourself for unprecedented monopolization and market manipulation.

One of my greatest dislikes about being an academic/writer is my ability to come up with perfect sentences (and sometimes even paragraphs) in the shower that I am somehow incapable of writing coherently 5 minutes later. Sigh.

Belgianth?

Oh my. This is how a republic dies. There will no longer be any accountability or consequences for political actors. Even if Biden doesn’t do it, Pandora’s box is now open. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/u...

Ah yes, the guy that hosted the first Bay Area fundraiser for Trump this cycle, breaking the seal for nervous wealthy tech folks who didn’t want to offend their liberal neighbors. Money buys political office. Who would have guessed we were a plutocracy..

I like this piece a lot, especially the repudiation of lazy ascriptions of widespread libertarianism. However I think a fundamental factor here that you do not mention is an almost unanimous adoption of “contrarianism” in the valley — the idea that the masses (i.e the demos) are wrong. This is key.

We will draw or win against Leicester and the cycle of giving him more time will continue. Has to be admitted that we haven’t played the same suicidal football the last two games—signs of progress? (Losing to an excellent Arsenal team is hardly shameful)

Apparently Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI argues that latter violated antitrust law by asking investors not to back competitors. If he wins, this could all but make illegal a basic principle of VC investment: don’t spread your bets; monopoly FTW.

Not in the slightest, I still get a buzz of excitement every time I pick up something I have been waiting to read for a while. I just wish I could read more.