9 - The Turbo-capitalist Tech Bro

Summary

The clear linkages in the Silicon Valley science-fiction films between tech companies and various disastrous events, running from the relatively mundane to the apocalyptic, renders its Silicon Valley companies heirs to the evil mega-corporations of 1970s and 1980s science fiction. Exemplified by Rollerball (Norman Jewison, 1975), Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979) and Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982), these films detail the impact of tyrannical corporations on human (and posthuman) life, all essentially proposing that such entities care not for human life in their ceaseless quest for profit. The plots of the Silicon Valley films hinge on the hubristic use of tech and the resultant unleashing of an existential threat to humanity. While the toxic masculinity of their leaders is central here, equally important is the influence of capitalist imperatives. As such, the films combine to lambast the neoliberal faith that the free market and the profit motive will compel both individuals and corporations to strive to better both themselves and the world, presenting Randian objectivism as a destructive, anti-human philosophy. If left alone, they suggest, neoliberalism and tech capitalism will create a posthuman future devoid of humanity itself. Specifically, then, they encourage us to treat tech corporations with scepticism and be especially wary of their fidelity to a turbo-charged, hyper-individualist and brutally acquisitive form of capitalism that emerged amid the clamour for deregulation in the period between the late 1970s and the 2000s.

Driven by their fidelity to the profit motive, the corporations in the Silicon Valley science-fiction films dismiss the precautionary principle. Here, the films reference Silicon Valley's two most cited aphorisms: Facebook's early guiding mantra that the company should ‘Move Fast and Break Things’ and the Jesuitical maxim, ‘it's better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission’. Both sayings indicate Silicon Valley corporations’ determination to forge ahead to reach their goals, irrespective of the rules they break or the damage they wreak along the way. The fictional corporations take a similar approach, subordinating the moral or ethical concerns surrounding the innovations they develop to the potential they have for financial reward.