Plutocracy Watch: As a card-carrying techno-optimist, am I wrong to have a bad feeling about Marc Andreesen’s “Techno-Optimist Manifesto”?:

Dan Drezner: Regarding "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto" <danieldrezner.substack.…>: ‘When thought leaders can't stand the heat, they should shut the hell up…. After proclaiming that he believes “in an absolute rejection of resentment,” we then arrive at [Andreesen’s] section on “The Enemy”, which does seem to contradict the lack of resentment. And who is the enemy?…. “Our enemies are not bad people—but rather bad ideas… a mass demoralization campaign for six decades—against technology and against life—under varying names like “existential risk”, “sustainability”, “ESG”, “Sustainable Development Goals”, “social responsibility”, “stakeholder capitalism”, “Precautionary Principle”, “trust and safety”, “tech ethics”, “risk management”, “de-growth”, “the limits of growth”… based on bad ideas of the past—zombie ideas, many derived from Communism, disastrous then and now—that have refused to die…”. Did you notice he lumped together some concepts that are admittedly a bit bonkers (precautionary principle, de-growth, limits of growth) with some concepts that are somewhat debatable (social responsibility, stakeholder capitalism) with some concepts that are politically polarizing but practically anodyne (ESG, Sustainable Development Goals, trust and safety) with some concepts that I would hope any responsible CEO or policymaker consider to be important (existential risk, sustainability, tech ethics, risk management)…. Like Hanania and others, he is trying to insert just enough plausibly absurd ideas so you will accept that the other ideas must be absurd even when that is not obvious at all (oh, and it should be noted that none of these ideas emanated from communism)….

Let’s get back to Andreessen’s description of the enemy…. “Our enemy is the ivory tower, the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable—playing God with everyone else’s lives, with total insulation from the consequences…”. For a guy who claims to absolutely reject resentment, it sure seems like he has packed an awful lot of it into those paragraphs!…

If Andreessen can’t handle criticism from university professors then he should shut the hell up, retreat to the safe space of his house, and count his billions….

If Andreessen’s problem is with techno-skepticism about AI… the call is coming from inside the house. It is pushback from Silicon Valley types, much more than the ivory tower, that is capturing the attention of the media.

Finally… he fails to discuss the role that liberal democracy plays in a technologically advanced society…