Re: <nettime> Against techno-optimism

[Ben Grosser via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Vesna and everyone,

Indeed, it is a vile document. I posted yesterday a redaction poetry
version of Andreessen's Techno-Optimist Manifesto that I believe gets at
the heart of it succinctly -->

Background and screenshots:
https://bengrosser.com/blog/andreessens-techno-optimist-manifesto-as-redaction-poetry/

Direct link to the full redaction poetry version:
https://bengrosser.com/files/Techno-Optimist-Manifesto-Andreessen-redacted-by-Grosser.pdf

Best,
Ben

On Wed, Oct 18, 2023 at 12:25 PM Vesna Manojlovic via nettime-l <
nettime-l@lists.nettime.org> wrote:

>
> Recently published The Techno-Optimist Manifesto by Marc Andreessen is,
> IMHO, the most vile & horrible neo-liberal nonsense,
> and I am afraid it will speak to many aspiring technocrats :(
>
> The content of the "manifesto" has been continuously disputed on UnCiv
> list since 2013, https://lists.puscii.nl/wws/info/uncivilization ,
> and in 2009 by the original "uncivilisation" manifesto:
> https://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/ ,
> by climate scientists :
> https://bonpote.com/en/12-climate-delay-discourses-and-how-to-debunk-them/
> &
>
> https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/7B11B722E3E3454BB6212378E32985A7/S2059479820000137a.pdf/discourses_of_climate_delay.pdf
>
> and recently by the authors of the TESCREAL acronym ...
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TESCREAL
>
> I am proud to be into the multiple "enemy categories" of this guy:
> degrowth, sustainability, “trust and safety”, “tech ethics”, diversity..
>
> I encourage you to be AGAINST techno-optimism, against Leviathan...
>
> https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/fredy-perlman-against-his-story-against-leviathan
>
> The antidotes?
>
> Care, ecofemnism, intersectional environmentalism...
>
> https://labs.ripe.net/author/becha/ripe-community-resilience-economy-of-care/
> &
> <https://labs.ripe.net/author/becha/ripe-community-resilience-economy-of-care/&;>
>
> https://labs.ripe.net/author/becha/environmental-impact-of-internet-urgency-de-growth-rebellion/
>
> Vesna
>
> Quotes & links:
>
> Jason Lefkowitz: https://octodon.social/@jalefkowit/111246809951833086
>
> "a bruised ego.
>
> Andreessen doesn't like the way people look at his investments
> critically these days. He doesn't like the questions he gets today about
> environmental impact, labor mistreatment, racial and sexual
> discrimination, and so forth at his portfolio companies. He bristles at
> assuming the responsibilities required of any grown-up business person.
>
> What he wants instead is to go back to the oughts, when the entire
> global media edifice was credulously repeating the line that his
> investments weren't just making him and his rich friends richer, but
> were improving the world to boot. He liked that treatment quite well. He
> would very much like the rest of us to go back to giving it to him.
>
> But he can't just, you know, SAY that. He'd be laughed out of the room
> if he did. So he has to dress it all up as a philosophical argument, as
> A Movement, even if by doing so he makes it clear just how tenuous his
> grasp is of the works he's quoting, and just how much of his worldview
> came from reading “thinkers” whose personal mission was to comfort the
> comfortable.
>
> Which makes it tempting to dunk on, I know. But don't bother, because
> the philosophy is beside the point. It's all just window dressing placed
> to obscure the fundamental point: the world used to tell this guy his
> farts smelled like flowers; at some point, it stopped; and he'd really
> like it to start back up again."
>
>
>
> https://fortune.com/2023/10/16/marc-andreessen-techno-optimist-manifesto-ai-50-billion-people-billionaire-vc/
>
>
> https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/17/when-was-the-last-time-marc-andreessen-talked-to-a-poor-person/?guccounter=1
>
>
> https://www.axios.com/2023/10/17/marc-andreessens-ai-manifesto-hurts-his-own-cause
>
> Images:
>
> https://www.leolinne.com/?portfolio=discourses-of-climate-delay
>
> https://wiki.techinc.nl/File:IMG_7881.PNG
>
>
> https://labs.ripe.net/images/t1xLN7do8IYUtV0OXgl12IazUIs=/8059/width-1536/IMG_9077.jpg
>
>
> --
> Senior Community Builder, RIPE NCC
> https://labs.ripe.net/author/becha/
> --
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