There was a moment when people readily confused men in turtlenecks with lapel mics pacing across a garishly lit stage with thought leadership. As a whole, we seem to have gotten better spotting that sort of thing as what it is: a pitch. Silicon Valley's ability to take over the world's collective imagination has noticeably diminished, in inverse proportion to its ability to actually take over our labor, our politics, our media. Silicon Valley's new innovations hardly get anyone excited, and they aren't presented to us as potential cult objects.

If your new iPhone now comes with Al and your vacation photos are automatically compatible with the virtual reality headset you'll never buy, the tech industry has replaced yesterday's glittering promises with the exhausted air of neoliberal government - the shrugging acceptance of having no alternative.
In the last five years, companies have stopped promising us the world and are instead content to dominate it. Their power of persuasion has run out; raw power remains. Every story about Silicon Valley will always be incomplete.

But this unassuming stretch of highway might offer a glimpse into how this happened.