2023-09-09 12:38:27
Douglas Rushkoff is one of the foremost experts on the internet. The father of the concept of virality and one of the most influential thinkers on the impact of technology on our lives He was invited in 2017 to a super-luxury retreat in the middle of the desert by five millionaires (whose names he is prohibited from revealing) to chat about “the future of technology.”
When he arrived he realized that the only concern of these very powerful men was, literally, how to save your skin from the apocalypsewhat they called “the event.” Environmental collapse, nuclear explosion, an unstoppable viruscomputer sabotage, biological warfare… “The billionaires have been preparing for years to escape from the rest of humanity, from the angry mob, from us”Explain.
That’s what the essay is about ‘Survival of the richest’ (Captain Swing, in bookstores September 18), where Rushkoff details the escapist fantasies of tech billionaires and their selfish mentality. It is no coincidence that Jeff Bezos wants to emigrate to space, that Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars, that Peter Thiel (the founder of Paypal) aspires to immortality in his bunker in New Zealand or that Sam Altman, the creator of ChatGPT, has proposed upload your mind to a supercomputer. “For them, the future of technology is about one thing: escaping the rest of us.” explains Rushkoff.
Why did you write the book?
When I met these tech billionaires, I realized that they really had no intention of making the world a more livable place. They are only interested in building something for their personal survival. His promise of technology to make the world better for all is radically false. They are preparing for the catastrophe that they themselves have caused.
Do you really think you can escape the apocalypse?
They are not as intelligent as they seem. They haven’t read much, most of them drop out of college after the first year, like Mark Zuckerberg, who is very immature. They are very powerful people whose cultural upbringing is limited to having seen a handful of zombie movies.
Mark Zuckerberg sees himself as Caesar Augustus. He is obsessed with him. He has the same haircut
What do they have in common?
We are all, deep down, a little strange. But the problem with, for example, Elon Musk, is that his strangeness, his autism or Asperger’s, can become very extreme, almost sociopathic, if it’s not balanced by something else. Some human emotions are exacerbated by digital technology and can lead you to have a totalizing vision of the world. I’m sure Musk is a fun and well-intentioned person, but he can’t help but view humans from a sociopathic distance, as if we were parts of a machine.
As?
Digital loves capitalism and capitalism loves digital because both can grow exponentially forever. Capitalism is saying that the human project has to do with profit, with numbers. That is why a non-spiritual, scientific understanding of the world prevails, where everything can be labeled. The digital dominates, expands and consumes, that is why it loves masculinity, at least the toxic traditional Western one. And that is why the digital environment rewards all those atheist, materialist, expansionist and colonialist leaders.
Digital technology is really good at creating false solutions to problems
In the book he explains that bunkers are no longer a fantasy.
It seems crazy, but they are a reality. And they don’t only exist in Hawaii or New Zealand. There is a Swiss company, Oppidum, that is building them all over Europe, especially in Croatia. They are luxury apartments underground. They sell them earthquake and nuclear disaster proof.
You have been writing about the internet since you were born, when did everything go wrong?
Around 1994. At first, the network was non-profit, it was a pure space that was going to help people connect with each other. Those of us who were there at the beginning were young Californians who liked psychedelia and believed in utopia. We programmed during the day and went raving at night. Until ‘Wired’ magazine said in 1993 that the network was a great business opportunity and everything went to hell.
The state was then the enemy.
We didn’t see it coming that if you get rid of the government, what you’re creating is a lawless space for corporations to do whatever they want. We failed to see that deregulation is not just about letting hackers run wild, but also about letting big companies run wild. I don’t think Biden will be able to regulate Big Tech.
Magic is more likely to save us from the apocalypse than the techno-solutionist future
What has the internet become?
Digital technology is really good at creating fake solutions to problems. It is also when it comes to isolating ourselves and distancing ourselves from the repercussions of our actions. When you buy a Tesla you don’t see the pollution generated by the manufacture of its battery, nor the children in the cobalt mines. Amazon even has an option to avoid human contact with the delivery person.
All this reminds us a little of the hippies, who ended up becoming yuppies.
Yes, capitalism has always been great at absorbing its own critique. You can go to Burning Man, drink ayahuasca, wear sustainable clothing, and hawk about women’s rights and still be a destructive jerk. When I was young I thought that anyone who took mushrooms would see what I saw and become a good person, but most idiots remain so after taking acid. Hitler also loved psychedelics. And nature!
What will save us?
Books, comedy, movies, rituals, dance, love, yoga, tantra and all those things that people laugh at. I hate to say this, but right now magic is more likely to save us from the apocalypse than the techno-solutionist future. Rationality, scientism and solutionism have reached their limit. I don’t think Monsanto is going to solve the food crisis by growing fake alfalfa in the ocean. It is time to recover the lost sciences.
What do you think of the fight between Musk and Zuckerberg?
They see themselves as gods. It’s as if Zeus and Athena decided to have a battle and we little humans are watching from below. Or as if Batman and Superman were fighting. Mark Zuckerberg sees himself as Caesar Augustus. He is obsessed with him. He sports the same haircut and begins their meetings with his rallying cry, ‘Domination!’. We should be grateful that his model is a benevolent dictator like Augustus and not Caligula. And Elon Musk sees himself as a demigod. Both interpret their pop fantasies as heroes of humanity.
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