Writer Ted Chiang (author of the fantastic Exhalation) was recently a guest on the Ezra Klein Show. The conversation ranged widely — I enjoyed his thoughts on s
Silicon Valley Is Turning Into Its Own Worst Fear
We asked a group of writers to consider the forces that have shaped our lives in 2017. Here, science fiction writer Ted Chiang looks at capitalism, Silicon Valley, and its fear of superintelligent AI.
Ted’s Thoughts
Ted Han’s thoughts about journalism, technology, civilization, art and a bunch of other things.
Interdependent Thoughts
Bookmarked Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey? by Ted Chiang in the New Yorker
Who’s Afraid of Chinese Models? (Stratechery Article 7-20-2026)
A Thesis on the History of the 21st Century: Technocracy, AI, and the End of the World
Reviewing a trio of books by a sextet of ruling-class ideologues, Mathias Fuelling finds an ambient anxiety hanging over a perceived crisis in American capitalism, with visions of bolstering a Silicon Valley-led technocracy fueled by AI investment reflecting American fears over the dawn of a "Chinese Century."
The Anti-Intellectualism of Silicon Valley Elites
I recently re-read Richard Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, and now every time a reactionary Silicon Valley billionaire opens his mouth, I think about it. So I wrote about it for The Nation. Here's the column: On Instagram, there’s an activist named Brian Patrick (@pano.
The scent of Musk: Power, charisma and paranoia in Silicon Valley
China confounds all that western liberals believed about the net | John Naughton
Technology is being used by China to exercise ever greater control over their workers’ lives
How China’s Renewable Push Upends Geopolitics w/ Kate Mackenzie & Tim Sahay
Opinion | How Scared Should We Be of A.I. Right Now?
The dark and distressing way that Silicon Valley talks about A.I. can be traced to a philosophy that influenced many tech executives.
Take it from the insiders: Silicon Valley is eating your soul | John Harris
Former Google and Facebook executives are sounding the alarm about the pervasive power of tech, writes Guardian columnist John Harris
More Everything Forever
This "smart and wonderfully readable" (New York Times) exposé shows why Silicon Valley’s heartless, baseless, and foolish obsessions—with escaping death...
‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley
As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them
What are your top 3 conversations on the state of the atmosphere? 😀
Daryl Ducharme
Going to #AtmosphereConf in a few weeks and feeling like I have a lot to learn from the @atprotocol.dev community. Any projects or resources that I should look at before I show up?
Gil Duran, author of The Nerd Reich, pulls it together: "the real 'innovation' we are seeing is the tech bros using wealth to seize government - in order to break government."
David Fenton
Crypto companies are the largest donors in American politics. Very few Americans use crypto at all. Journalist @gilduran.com calls it a gun to the head of American democracy. If a politician goes against them, tens of millions of dollars land on their head.
