As a basic rule, any essay that features the one-sentence paragraph “I am here to bring the good news” is written by somebody who needs to take your cash, your vote, or your soul. As far as I do know, Marc Andreessen, the browser pioneer and cofounder of powerhouse VC agency Andreessen Horowitz, isn’t operating for workplace. But the Techno-Optimist manifesto he posted this week (it’s a habit with him) is unquestionably bullish on inflating his already bloated pockets—and narrowing the broad arc of human existence with a relentless pursuit of recent and even dangerous know-how.

Andreessen’s bolt from late-stage capitalism’s Mount Olympus—Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road—landed this week to a combination of kudos and outrage. He posits that know-how is the important thing driver of human wealth and happiness. I’ve no drawback with that. In reality, I too am a techno-optimist—or a minimum of I used to be earlier than I learn this essay, which attaches poisonous baggage to the time period. It’s fairly darn apparent that issues like air-conditioning, the web, rocket ships, and electrical mild are safely within the “win” column. As we enter the age of AI, I’m on the aspect that thinks that the advantages are properly price pursuing, even when it requires vigilance to make sure that the results received’t be disastrous.

But Andreessen’s screed isn’t nearly how nice it’s that we people are a tool-building bunch. It’s additionally an over-the-top declaration of humanity’s future as a tech-empowered tremendous species—Ayn Rand resurrected as a Substack writer. “Technology must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man,” he writes. “We believe that we are, have been, and will always be the masters of technology, not mastered by technology. Victim mentality is a curse in every domain of life, including in our relationship with technology—both unnecessary and self-defeating. We are not victims, we are conquerors.” (The italics are his.) If this essay had a soundtrack it could be Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.” Andreessen might need missed out on making an early funding in Uber, however he’s all-in on the Übermensch. He even cites Friedrich Nietzsche as certainly one of his “Patron Saints of Techno-Optimism.”

Perhaps a greater title for this essay can be “The Techno-Billionaire Manifesto,” because it makes an attempt to justify not solely an unquestioning pursuit of know-how however the late-stage capitalism that gives out-of-whack rewards for the system’s winners—like Andreessen. In his argument, the market-based “Techno Capital Machine” is the infallible generator of benefit and manufacturing. Never thoughts the astonishing revenue inequality that has dragged the world down and fomented harmful political unrest. Money, proclaims Andreessen, is the one motivator able to producing the large technological leaps that advance humanity. This shall be information to the inventors of the web, who had been civil servants and educational geeks with zero revenue motive. In reality, for a few years they had been adamantly against any commercialization in anyway.

Andreessen does proclaim that he opposes monopolies and regulatory seize. Maybe he believed that when his browser firm Netscape was buried by Microsoft. But that’s a hole declaration from somebody who’s sat on the board of Facebook, now Meta, for 15 years. I’d like to peek on the minutes to see how typically he has inveighed towards monopoly and lobbying in board conferences.

Andreessen argues that superior know-how creates abundance that lifts all people. “We believe there is no conflict between capitalist profits and a social welfare system that protects the vulnerable,” he writes. But although he won’t understand it from his home in Atherton, California—the nation’s richest zip code—the nation he lives in presents a counterargument. While the US has probably the most superior know-how on the earth, the life expectancy of its residents has dropped. Surely he is aware of of the homelessness drawback in America’s cities, most evident in close by San Francisco? He may even have learn that the overwhelming majority of common Americans can’t afford to buy a home, and that 40 p.c would struggle to cover an sudden $400 expense. The Techno-Capital machine doesn’t appear to be working for them. But don’t fear—Andreessen cites an Andy Warhol quote celebrating how properly our system works as a result of poor folks and wealthy folks alike can take pleasure in a Coca-Cola. Let ’em drink sugar water!