Evgeny Morozov writes about the political and social implications of technology.
In this fascinating article, Morozov reveals and condemns the moral and intellectual vacuity of the leaders of the tech sector.
For all the growing skepticism about Silicon Valley, many still believe that the digital revolution has a serious intellectual dimension, hashed out at conferences like Ted, online salons like Edge.org, publications like Wired, and institutions like the MIT Media Lab. The ideas of the digerati might be wrong, they might be overly utopian, but, at least, they are sincere.
The Epstein scandal – including the latest revelation that Epstein might have channeled up to $8m (some of it, apparently, on behalf of Bill Gates) to the MIT Media Lab, while its executives were fully aware of his problematic background – has cast the digerati in a very different light. It has already led to the resignation of the lab’s director, Joi Ito.
This, however, is not only a story of individuals gone rogue. The ugly collective picture of the techno-elites that emerges from the Epstein scandal reveals them as a bunch of morally bankrupt opportunists. To treat their ideas as genuine but wrong is too generous; the only genuine thing about them is their fakeness. Big tech and its apologists do produce the big thoughts – alas, mostly accidental byproducts of them chasing the big bucks.
It wasn’t meant to be that way. Back in 1991, John Brockman – the world’s most successful digital impresario, and, until recently, my literary agent – was touting the emergence of the “third culture” that would finally replace the technophobic literary intellectuals with those coming from the world of science and technology. “The emergence of the third culture introduces new modes of intellectual discourse and reaffirms the pre-eminence of America in the realm of important ideas,” wrote Brockman in a much-discussed essay.
Brockman, who would later connect Epstein to dozens of world-famous scientists, most of them his clients, made it seem as if it were people like him who built this “third culture” – out of their perceptive genius. The cardinal error of such analysis, however, lies in its tendency to mistake structural transformations of global capitalism for zeitgeisty trends in the history of ideas.
Thus, Brockman’s “new modes of intellectual discourse” were mostly the result of technology companies moving away from large and soulless cold war military contracts and on to the world of funky personal computing. Apple, with Steve Jobs as its chief countercultural evangelist, needed the consumerist mysticism of “the third culture”; IBM and Hewlett-Packard, stuck in the 1950s mentality, did not. Likewise, the “pre-eminence of America in the realm of important ideas” was, above all, the outcome of its dominance in the economic and military realms, weakening the efforts of other countries to create their own vibrant alternatives to Hollywood or Silicon Valley.
There was no better original exponent of the “third culture” than Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the MIT Media Lab and a new kind of applied intellectual, full of big ideas on technical subjects. The lab was ahead of its time in understanding that the industry and the government alike needed cooler, more interactive technology that was not provided by the traditional cold war contractors.
Everything else followed suit. Thus, Negroponte became a speaker at the very first Technology, Entertainment, Design conference (the famous Ted Talks) in 1984, which, a few decades later, emerged as the pre-eminent promoter of the “third culture”: no politics, no conflict, no ideology – just science, technology, and pragmatic problem-solving. Ideas as a service, neatly packaged in 18-minute intellectual snacks.
“Third culture” was a perfect shield for pursuing entrepreneurial activities under the banner of intellectualism. Infinite networking with billionaires but also models and Hollywood stars; instant funding by philanthropists and venture capitalists moving in the same circles; bestselling books tied to soaring speaking fees used as promotional materials for the author’s more substantial commercial activities, often run out of academia.
That someone like Jeffrey Epstein would take advantage of these networks to whitewash his crimes was almost inevitable. In a world where books function as brand extensions and are never actually read, it’s quite easy for a rich and glamorous charlatan of Epstein’s stature to fit in.
One of Brockman’s persistent laments was that all the billionaire techies in his circle barely read any of the books published by his clients. Not surprisingly, his famed literary dinners – held during the Ted Conference, they allowed Epstein (who kept Brockman’s Edge Foundation on a retainer) to mingle with scientists and fellow billionaires – were mostly empty of serious content.
As Brockman himself put it after one such dinner in 2004, “last year we tried ‘The Science Dinner’. Everyone yawned. So this year, it’s back to the money-sex-power thing with ‘The Billionaires’ Dinner’.” Was “the money-sex-power thing” that very potent “new mode of intellectual discourse” promised by the “third culture”? If so, we’d rather pass.
Please read the rest of this article.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There’s only one way to take on big tech: by reining in big money and big state
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/28/big-tech-populist-stance-big-money-big-state?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard
The Epstein scandal at MIT shows the moral bankruptcy of techno-elites
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/07/jeffrey-epstein-mit-funding-tech-intellectuals?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard
Morozov called third culture the bullsh*t-industrial complex. That’s about right. Watching Ted Talkses does not replace reading Dewey. Not even close.
Heads Up Alert: Tonight, (Friday, Nov. 29 -10pm) Turner Classic Movies is airing a truly classic masterpiece, A Face In The Crowd. Andy Griffith stars as Lonesome Rhodes. Many experts say that this film, released in 1957, shows the rapid rise of a seeming demagogue, a precursor to Donald Trump. If you haven’t seen this film, it is must viewing. I’m setting the Roku right now so that I won’t miss it. It is Andy Griffith’s greatest performance. And yes, no doubt you’ll be thinking about Trump by the time the screen fades to black. 1957 no less!!
Thank you. Recorder set!
1957 — can’t believe it. That was a great movie. Thank you. It was like a horror film about a monster that definitely reminded me of Trump in so many ways. What was scary wasn’t the monster, though. The monster in A Face in the Crowd wasn’t a vampire or a zombie, an unnatural thing wanting to bite you; no, it was a Frankenstein. Andy Griffith’s character was human made — mass media made. He was made by a BS-industrial complex.
The BS Industrial Complex. That’s perfect.
TED stands for Tech Enabled Disruption.
and ONLY an accomplished BS artist is even asked to give a TED talk.
The people who give TED talks are generally as full of themselves as they are of “it”.
I disagree. Perhaps your usage of ‘generally’ puts her in a different category than BS artist. Anita Moorjani is NOT ‘a BS artist’. I can’t speak for any of the others.
I sent a copy of Anita’s medical report to the head researcher at the National Institutes of Health when I was a patient there. [I did NOT like being kicked out of the Neurofibromatosis Type 2 Natural History Study for being severely mentally ill. They said that without phychiatric help they were afraid that in the future I’d become a threat to myself or others. That was in Nov. 2012. As far as I know, I haven’t knifed or shot anyone yet.] Moorjani is an international speaker.
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Dying to be me! Anita Moorjani at TEDxBayArea
Nov 30, 2013
TEDx Talks
Doctors had given Anita Moorjani just hours to live when she arrived at the hospital in a coma on the morning of February 2nd, 2006. Unable to move as a result of the cancer that had ravaged her body for almost four years, Anita entered another dimension, where she experienced great clarity and understanding of her life and purpose here on earth. She was given a choice of whether to return to life or not, and chose to return to life when she realized that “heaven” is a state and not a place. This subsequently resulted in a remarkable and complete recovery of her health. Anita’s riveting talk will inspire you to transform your life by living more authentically, discovering your greatest passions, transcending your deepest fears, and living from a place of pure joy. Her true story will radically alter your current beliefs about yourself, your purpose on earth, your health, your relationships, and your life!
The people who decide who is allowed to speak must have let one slip through.
I’m sure they won’t let it happen again.
Here’s something to think about. No one can explain how Epstein made his money. He was buying all these prestigious affiliations and connections and where the money came from is a complete mystery:
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/how-did-jeffrey-epstein-make-his-fortune.html
The truth is they didn’t care where it came from. They didn’t know and they didn’t want to know, or else they would have insisted he explain this mystery before they all took it.
It could have been fraud, blackmail, money laundering, the sex trade- they didn’t know, didn’t ask and don’t care.
It’s not just the techno elites who are morally bankrupt.
Lots of academics were taking money from him and at least 2 University Presidents (Harvard and MIT) have failed to do the right thing and give every last dime that came from Epstein to organizations that benefit girls and women who have been trafficked.
MIT’s President actually knew about Epstein’s past, but whether the Presidents knew or not, they should have donated ALL the Epstein-tainted money to worthy organizations.
Harvard and MIT can certainly afford to do so and claiming “we don’t need to give back money received before Epstein’s crimes were made public” is inexcusable.
But then again, these are the Presidents of Harvard and MIT we are talking about, so no surprise there. That’s how they got where they are.
I wouldn’t equate university presidents with “academia”, but no doubt, the business transformation of colleges couldn’t be done without the help of some professors.
saddest and most devastating truth: Presidents of most prestigious schools in the mix
Nice to hear critical thinking about TED talks. I detest most of the TED talks I’ve seen, especially those on education. It’s a platform where charlatans can spout off without having to field any critical questioning. And sadly it’s influential.
The oligarchical elite loves to believe that their success was due not to luck, connections, their parents’ money, the work of those whom they exploit, monopolistic control, ruthlessness and psychopathy, ownership of political, legal, and regulatory processes, etc., but to their native intelligence and grit, which they attribute, almost invariably, to their “good genes.” (A grotesque self-parody of this position is to be found in our president, IQ 45). And all this sponsoring of salons–TEDtalks and Edge conferences and books like “This Changes Everything” exists as a mirror to the view that the oligarchs have of themselves as elite by virtue of their intellectual superiority. And, ofc, these leaders of the New Feudal Order maintain a stable of paid court singers–people like Friedman and Pinker and Gladwell–to promote BIG IDEAS. But not any BIG IDEA will do–it has to be one that sounds vaguely scientific, that is simple-minded and crude enough for any idiot to understand, that serves as an apologia for the status quo (e.g., things are actually getting a lot better JUST AS THEY ARE, the future belongs to the Transhuman superman), and that makes the case for some new exploitation (e.g., sales of depersonalized learning software, the gig economy, eugenic transhumanism). The TEDTalks make the case for the disruption. The disruption makes the obscenely rich and powerful obscenely richer and more powerful. But scratch the surface of The Glory That Is New Rome and you find Tiberius’s Villa: https://celsus.blog/2013/09/22/the-old-goat-of-capri-historical-uncertainty-and-plausible-doubt/ or Trimalchio’s Feast: https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~wstevens/history331texts/satyricon.html and one of Epstein’s cribs.
The more things change, . . .
Breathlessly awaiting Bill Gates’s latest book recommendations, here.
“The oligarchical elite loves to believe that their success was due not to luck, connections, their parents’ money, ”
There is a book on this subject by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow
One of the relevant sections is Overconfidence
people often overestimate how much they understand about the world and underestimate the role of chance in particular. This is related to the excessive certainty of hindsight, when an event appears to be understood after it has occurred or developed.
There is another story about tech, but as this blog notes, the relatively short-lived “Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility” is gone and little remains of that effort
http://www.publicsphereproject.org/content/cpsr-dissolution-and-gary-chapman-winner-cpsrs-norbert-wiener-award
There is, however, a lot of posturing about tech, supposedly freed from greed. This all sounds wonderful—a critique of the tech culture, but catch 22. It has major participants and funders who are the problem http://humanetech.com/problem#the-way-forward
“the traditional cold war contractors”
Ofc, the digital economy is also driven by war contracting–the facial recognition technology that will open your phone will also identify dissenters at a protest; the drone technology that delivers your packages will erase people at a safe distance of 5,000 miles; the data mining that delivers personalized Black Friday ads for wireless digital garlic peelers will deliver disinformation ads to keep a candidate who supports Medicare for All from gaining sufficient traction to win an election. Increasingly, the war is on ordinary citizens. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/amazon-developing-high-tech-surveillance-tools-eager-customer-america-s-n1038426
I can’t find the article.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/07/jeffrey-epstein-mit-funding-tech-intellectuals
The free market consumer ideology has produced a social disorder; people are no longer embedded in a culture that serves the common wealth, the common good. —Peter Block, Walter Brueggemann, John McKnight
Ironically, the success of free enterprise capitalism depends upon moral values, such as honesty and compassion, that are borrowed from elsewhere. Without such supporting values, free enterprise (or any other economic system) would eventually self-destruct through its own excesses. —Arthur Simon
We just had the most benighted Black Friday ever! Black Friday sales up 19 percent! Insect populations down 85 percent in past 30 years!
We are winning the war against the planet we live on. Congratulations, us.
Bob Shepherd: I wonder if mankind is going to do something before our food supply is no longer available? Those in power don’t seem to care that bees are being damaged by pesticides. Trump thinks its great to cancel all of the regulations that Obama passed to protect air and water pollution, land use, and prevent greenhouse gases. I often wonder if the wealthy breath the same air as we commoners do. They never seem to complain about increased pollution.
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Pesticides damage survival of bee colonies, landmark study shows
29 Jun 2017 14.00 EDT
This article is more than 2 years old
The world’s largest ever field trial demonstrates widely used insecticides harm both honeybees and wild bees, increasing calls for a ban
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/29/pesticides-damage-survival-of-bee-colonies-landmark-study-shows?CMP=share_btn_link
Insects are our canaries in the coal mine.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809
The future being designed by the Technocrati gives a whole new meaning to “Everything is under control.”
Bob Shepherd: Creepy forecast. I watched the movie “Snowden’ and it freaked me out.
” ..the creation of several social media platforms to which people would post EVERYTHING about themselves, and it was a simple matter to data mine these to create extraordinarily detailed profiles of every citizen.”
This is why I will NEVER join a social media. I’m being tracked enough without having a smart phone and just doing purchasing, emails and reading articles on my laptop. Someday I may have to get a better phone. For now, I’m happy with my prepaid cheapie. Nobody is tracking me on it.
I haven’t seen that documentary, but I recently made precisely the same assertion in an essay and in this short short story: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/stories/he-sees-you-when-youre-sleeping-a-short-story/
Bob Shepherd:I just sent your article to some friends.
I do worry about what will happen to my grandsons. They are quite good at tech but is it good for them? Facial recognition is NOT good for this country. I guess we are supposed to all bow in unison to whomever controls the government. Trump is stupid but there are possible corrupt leaders who will abuse the system.
Robert’s Rule: If you wonder about whether some new technology or policy is a good idea, imagine the worst person in the future, at the worst time, wielding its power.
Consume. Obey. Consume. Submit. Consume. Resistance is futile. All your base are belong to us.
There should be a movie made today about the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the state Catholic Conferences examining the “resurrection of an earlier quest to become the hegemonic force in society”. The rise of the religious right- Catholic and evangelical is as much a threat as tech tyrants and the Kochtopus.
In 2018 and 2019, scholars warned that the Catholic Church has abandoned its former acceptance of a modern, pluralistic and democratic world in favor of an authoritarian nation-state. Each of us can examine the record of Catholic influence on state and national government, related to public education, to decide if the scholars are right.
A mixed bag. The Catholic Church has spawned the New Catholic Right AND Liberation Theology.
No mixed bag in the U.S. The nuns on the bus and the congregants i.e. the 40% of white Catholics who didn’t vote for Trump, haven’t received the bishops’ memos.
Liberation Theology is south of the border.