Tech-bros = the New Evangelists
“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
(William Gibson)
When I was an undergraduate in college, I took a class in African Literature. In that class, we read some amazing works, including Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (and many others). Something struck me about the works that I read that semester — something I saw in common. Many of them demonstrated the ways in which Christianity was used against the indigenous Africans. In my paper, I wrote that religion (and Christianity specifically) was used as a tool of control. The Africans were told that their lot in life was part of God’s plan. They were told that their suffering was part of God’s plan for them on this Earth. However, if they remained true — if they suffered through this veil of tears — then they would be rewarded in the afterlife. They needed to play the long game.
I also remember that my professor — quite a religious man who had large posters of fetuses hanging in his office — was appalled. He called me into his office to ask me about my thesis. Surely, I could not mean that Christianity was being used in this way. Surely, I did not mean to say that the Christians were using the Bible to perpetuate horrible injustices. I assure you, that is exactly what I meant. (Of course, I know now that I was hardly making a novel realization or argument.)
Now, in late 2024, we have the tech bros who are preaching from a similar holy text. We simply need to adhere to the gospel, to play their game, and we might — if we play our cards right — partake of some glorious technological afterlife. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, tech bros are those (though typically males) who work in digital industries (computing, AI, digital currency, social media, etc.), primarily in the US. Importantly, they lack social skills and “are too confident about their own ability.” (Quite recently, Steve Bannon has decried all the “on the spectrum” tech billionaires.) Tech bros have come to hold great power in our society and culture.
One of the prevailing takes on the 2024 presidential election was that tech bros were instrumental in the election of Donald Trump. They infused huge sums of money into his campaign (and his inauguration). They funded and hosted events for him. And, perhaps most importantly, they used their technology to get information (and misinformation) out about Trump. They did so largely because they believed he would make their (personal, business, financial) lives better. They also did so because they could achieve their goals via Trump. The tech bros who backed Trump include Elon Musk (Twitter, Tesla, SpaceX, etc), Vivek Ramaswamy (QVT Financial), Peter Theil (PayPal, Palantir, Clarium), Mark Zuckerberg (FaceBook), David Sacks (Craft Ventures), Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (crypto exchange Gemini), Doug Leone (Sequoia Capital), and Joe Lonsdale (Palantir).
Mind you, Trump changes his mind on tech every five minutes. One minute he is totally opposed to TikTok. To be fair, in 2020 an enterprising group of K-pop stans had just used TikTok to thwart a Trump rally. His petulant self was not amused, and so he wanted to ban TikTok. By late December 2024, however, he had become convinced that TikTok was central to his re-election, and he now wants to save TikTok from the upcoming ban set to take effect in mid January 2025.
Trump was also pretty strongly opposed to digital currency, until he wasn’t. Trump’s holy conversion seemed to have coincided with tech bros shoveling Trump buckets of cash. And now, without a shred of conflict of interest, Trump and his sons have engaged in a digital currency company, World Liberty Financial.
So now, the tech bros are on the inside. They have Trump’s ear (at least for now). They are expecting policy changes. And they are preaching about a technological future.
But here’s something that I find troubling. Maybe you will, too.
Look at AI. I do not mean the AI in your phones, or even ChatGPT. I mean the huge AIs currently being developed. The SF, apocalyptic kind of AI. Even Trump as called them “alarming and scary.” (Many) Tech bros think that AI is likely to achieve a new level of “artificial general intelligence (AGI)” soon. Now, much of the public is wary of this kind of AI. Granted, all the SF films and TV series play a part in that. But we also know that these large AI consume huge amounts of energy. We know that they pose (the potential) for threat to humanity. And, yet, the tech guys are pushing ahead. Why? The god-like powers that the AI will bestow upon them? The large amounts of money they can earn? We the people merely need to accept their word that it’ll all be OK. Besides, we won’t be here that long (see below).
Look at the singularity. That’s the moment when we develop the ability to upload our consciousness (or identity) into a digital device. Another SF trope. The dream of the tech bros. So, there’s the “appeal” of immortality. I mean, as long as we have electricity, and as long as they don’t set off the EMP, the digital version of you can last a very long time. That plan/goal/desire says a number of things: it says something about the body and embodiedness; it says something about one’s attitude toward society (remember the lack of social skills); it says something about the collective and collectivity.
And it produces some particular attitudes about the here and now:
Importantly, tech bros such as Peter Thiel (and many others) argue that those in technology will always find a way to address global needs. They believe that tech will find the answers to overpopulation, and pollution, and disease. One just have to have the means to access them. Further, they argue that these kinds of problems (overpopulation, hunger, etc.) are transitory issues. We will all transcend the body and bodily needs, won’t we?
Look at birth rates. Tech bros seem to have jumped on the pronatalist bandwagon. Go forth and multiply, y’all. For example, Musk has tweeted that procreation is a MUST. We must all go out and procreate as soon — and as much — as possible. He’s not alone. Whence the imperative? Their thinking seems less Biblical and more eugenicist. The eugenicists of the 19th and 20th century were appalled at the declining birth rate. The declining white birth rate. Teddy Roosevelt called the declining white birth rate “race suicide.” The MAGAts rail against “replacement theory.” Musk, and other tech bros, seem similarly concerned about certain groups procreating. After all, they need people to work in the factories and to buy the goods.
All of these (AI, singularity, procreation) are linked to more generalized attitudes about growth. Consider Marc Andreessen, the co-head of a venture capital group (a16z), which has backed Trump and the development of AI. Andreessen argues that all growth is good. He argues that growth is the key to all happiness. With unfettered growth and technological development, everyone benefits! (It’s a sort of trickle-down theory on steroids.)
Andreessen also quite publicly argues that we should reject a notion known as the Precautionary Principle. Although it certainly was not called that in the book, I’d argue that the Precautionary Principle was at the heart of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. That 18-year-old woman understood that we need to think about what we do before we do it. We need to understand that technological development can and will produce consequences — some of which were are not prepared for (aka the Monster running around crushing people). But Andreessen knows better than Shelley. He would reject the Cautionary Principle with “extreme prejudice.”
As Robert Kozma writes: Andreessen “rails against the ‘lies’ told by his enemies, lies for example that ‘technology takes our jobs, reduces our wages, increases inequality, threatens our health, ruins the environment, degrades our society, corrupts our children, impairs our humanity, threatens our future.’”
Well, of course, he does. 1) the development of these technologies enriches Andreessen and his cronies, and 2) and the rest of us must simply bear the slings and arrows, the poverty and pollution.
They’re selling a moral version of the world. They’re selling redemption for the chosen ones. After all, for those who can afford it, immortality awaits in digital form. But mostly they’re selling a new form of control.
Can I get a “hallelujah”!
Ritch Calvin is an Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at SUNY Stony Brook. He is the author of Queering SF: Readings (Aqueduct), Feminist Epistemology and Feminist Science Fiction (Palgrave McMillan) and edited a collection of essays on Gilmore Girls (McFarland). His most recent book is Queering SF Comics: Readings (2024, Aqueduct Press).