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It is no wonder the Singularitarian fantasies have captured the imaginations of the world’s most zealously self-interested businesspeople: these visions promise ultimate, permanent power. The stated ambitions of America’s tech oligarchs are almost comically solipsistic—endless lifespans, superhuman…

Along with the cloistered military agencies that underwrote the research for the smartphone, the personal computer, and the internet, these institutions—yes, even NASA—shared a set of overarching goals: to extend the reach of machines to all spheres of human activity; to ensure those machines remai…

there lurked a tenebrous techie will to power

One company, which the Wall Street Journal called “The Epitome of a Stanford-Fueled Startup,” encapsulated in every respect the sham of the Silicon Valley meritocracy, from its charmed beginnings to its ignominious downfall. This company, called Clinkle, secured investors before settling on a produ…

[...] the last thing that mattered in Silicon Valley was technological innovation. Marketing came first and foremost. The actual products of the tech industry—computers and software—were less important than the techniques used to sell those products, and to sell shares in the companies that made …