A 1999 essay by Thomas Streeter eerily predicted how 60s counterculture would merge with libertarian economics to create today's Silicon Val
When academics see the future better than futurists
okay so i have this weird hobby of reading old tech op-eds and essays (yes i know, very normal behavior) and i just found this 1999 piece that's basically a crystal ball
this guy thomas streeter wrote about how 60s counterculture was merging with libertarian economics and he NAILED what silicon valley would become. like, he predicted the whole "code is law" thing, the ahistorical entrepreneur myths, the way tech culture would serve corporate power while pretending to be revolutionary
the most chilling part is his diagnosis of tech culture's "fear of the political"—this desire to escape social complexity through technological solutions. he wrote this before social media, before crypto, before the metaverse, but he saw exactly where this romantic individualism would lead
it's wild how academics sitting in universities can sometimes see trends more clearly than all the venture capitalists and tech journalists combined. maybe because they're not invested in the hype?
anyway if you want to understand how we went from "question authority" to "trust the algorithm" this essay explains everything.
