I’ve read two recent pieces that attack the tech giants—Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Microsoft—in various ways. “Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend,” and “Ashamed to work in Silicon Valley: how techies became the new bankers.”

Let me state at the outset that I’m not a tech worker and I have no expertise in the complex relationship between technology, politics, and society. So what I say is tentative.

First, I have mixed feelings about these attacks, mostly because I’m a transhumanist who believes that only science and technology informed by philosophy can save us. Now obviously a lot of junk gets produced by technology companies, a lot of time is wasted on Facebook, there are a lot of clueless nerds in the world, and a lot of bad stuff happens when lies about politics are spread on the internet.

It is especially disconcerting when you consider that Google could cut off Breitbart, Alex Jones, and neo-Nazi nonsense from search results in a second, but it doesn’t want to be perceived as “left-leaning” or lose advertising money—keeping the advertisers is more important than making sure that people read the truth.

So I do think tech companies have huge responsibilities, perhaps a model like Wikipedia, where they take their civic responsibilities seriously, as opposed to just focusing on profit, would benefit us all. Of course, this depends on the creation of a new economic model, since the drive for profit, as opposed to increasing societal good, is by definition a large part of the problem.

As for jobs lost to tech, I’ve written about this multiple times, and I say again that we need a new economic system which doesn’t encourage despoiling the natural environment and climate, leaves vast wealth in the hands of a very few, etc.

Still, tech companies do research and produce things—some of the most important possible research like AI and robotics and longevity is done by tech companies. So in that way, they have the potential to do enormous good too. That also provides quite a contrast to Wall Street, the whole point of which is mostly to scam money off others without producing anything or contributing to society.

Finally, let me say that ideally sci-tech research should be mostly funded by the public sector with accountability towards public good vs. private profit. Or at least there should be enough government regulation to ensure that the private sector operates in the public interest. But again, I am not an expert in such matters and these are complex issues.

Liked it? Take a second to support Dr John Messerly on Patreon!