Bigmouth 2.0 BigTech and the Promise of What?

Sheriff Trump and his deputies are back in the saddle. With their guns ready, they swagger through the saloons, promising to chase out the Bidenists, socialists, antichrists, Mexicans, and all the other illegals from God’s own country. Among the sheriff’s crew, a new type of medicine man is becoming increasingly visible. Typically, they are old, white, male, and very, very rich. Sound familiar? Sure, but these new medicine men bring brand-new remedies to the table—things like crypto, artificial intelligence, or the startup culture. The application of these miracle cures is simple: toss one into a room and shout “Disruption!” After that, the world is a different, better place—and you’ve pocketed a few billion dollars in the process.

Let’s take a closer look at one of these disruptions. Perhaps the most famous example is Uber. It all started with clever programmers developing software for more efficient route planning. Then came the disruption… and afterward? Taxis were no longer yellow but mostly black. And they were a bit cheaper, too. Hooray!

And the new medicine men? Their heroic narrative almost invariably includes being a “dropout”—someone who abandoned university because the supposed narrowness of academic life was unbearable, a straitjacket they had to escape to achieve success. In this narrative, an anti-academic stance is practically a prerequisite for success and for stamping one’s mark on the world, radically changing our lives: saving the planet with electric cars, colonizing space, or relocating real life into an entirely new electronic universe. Whether this self-image truly heralds a new era of policy making for our future—or merely serves as a means to secure personal wealth through political influence—remains to be seen.

#BigTech #Disruption #Uber