Are Silicon Valley "Libertarians" just Technocrats? - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#14474551
Looking at Silicon Valley leaders like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, they seem to be advocating a Libertarian approach in order to support technological advancements. Their advocacy of personal freedom and deregulation of corporations seems really benevolent and all, until you look deeper and realize that they want to use that lack of government regulation to speed up develop of technologies and experiments, especially for radical ideas and concepts that might face restriction from governments or the will of the public.

After all, imagine if the US had no privacy regulations. Google could freely test out their augmented reality glasses and use the data without restraint. What if we didn't have government regulations to oversee the safety of driverless cars? They could put that out sooner too since there won't be any regulations and bureaucrats to hamper their efforts. What if there were no laws requiring cars to be sold through dealerships? Now Tesla could sell their cars online.

Giving innovators room to develop creative solutions to modern problems isn't bad. But allowing unfettered freedom in conducting experiments could be troublesome in the future. What happens when genetic engineering becomes a reality, and we live in a libertarian America that refuses to regulate research? What happens when advanced AIs are put into use, or lifelike androids are created? The benefits of giving unlimited freedom to these tech-magnates are clear, but the consequences aren't.
#14474626
Well, you are stuck with a dilemma that anybody who stays on this website long enough reaches. Order vs Uncertainty. Order will win in the end, thats why there is a disproportionate ammount of extreme rightists-leftists, who have easy anwer for that question.
#14478984
JohnRawls wrote:Well, you are stuck with a dilemma that anybody who stays on this website long enough reaches. Order vs Uncertainty. Order will win in the end, thats why there is a disproportionate ammount of extreme rightists-leftists, who have easy anwer for that question.


Well, I can imagine a dark dystopia in which those in power abuse these technological advancements...
#14479012
JohnRawls wrote:Order will win in the end, thats why there is a disproportionate ammount of extreme rightists-leftists, who have easy anwer for that question.

Why do you assume that's the case. Entropy is the prevailing law of thermodynamics. In one respect, libertarianism just means you stop wasting so much energy forestalling the invevitable. Use energy more wisely and establish a simple order, not a complex one.

DrSteveBrule wrote:Well, I can imagine a dark dystopia in which those in power abuse these technological advancements...

Can you imagine one where the government spies on its own citizens?
#14506015
DrSteveBrule wrote:Looking at Silicon Valley leaders like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, they seem to be advocating a Libertarian approach in order to support technological advancements. Their advocacy of personal freedom and deregulation of corporations seems really benevolent and all, until you look deeper and realize that they want to use that lack of government regulation to speed up develop of technologies and experiments, especially for radical ideas and concepts that might face restriction from governments or the will of the public.

Do you have any examples of what they have proposed? I'm not familiar with Peter Thiel, but I have heard Musk saying he supports a greenhouse gas tax for instance, which doesn't strike me as particularly libertarian.

Just a warning, I'm totally biased in favour of Musk. He can do anything he wants as far as I'm concerned. The guy is a genius.
#14506057
Musk is a rare bird. He's a capitalist of novel and cynic repute who puts the creative back in Schumpeter's creative destruction. In stark contrast to guys like Jamie Dimon and Mitt Romney who are a net drain on society.
#14552141
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/12/rise_of ... y_partner/

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/06/techs_t ... y_bigwigs/

They're just greedy capitalists that don't want their wealth threatened by tax reformation, change in social policy, etc. They usually don't have a science heavy background and are not considered experts in their fields. They might have an engineering background or something, but they're hardly the cream of the crop in terms of being the intellectual giants of our day

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