Full circle. I mean, isn't that the valleys origin?
This is a good thing. The traditional big defense contractors have largely become incompetent. We need software companies with actual expertise in software, machine learning, ai, computer vision, etc. to make these next generation technologies. Couple this with the willingness of SV to pay employees, we might see some actual engineering being done. Palantir, SpaceX, Anduril, etc. have already shown they are capable of creating new products below budget, and ahead of schedule, something that Boeing, Lockheed, and friends have been unable to do since the soviet union fell.
Always important to note that when the NYT talks about SV, they're talking about a competitor and an existential business threat.
Military drones have a lot of cross pollination with civilian drones, each advance the other. Its inevitable and expected. I think that the fake separation of Military and Civilian technology facade is just ending, nothing really changed except the language of press releases.
They were libertarians until they realized that working with a friendly government is even more profitable. We see more and more a merger of business and government. I think there is a name for that but I don’t recall at the moment.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250804215602/https://www.nytim...
Well Dark-Enlightenment has been speeding up since trump took office. I am not surprised that the neo fascist movent aiming to transform Silicon Valley tech giants into authoritatian city states would embrace and strenghen its relationship with the military. Someone is gonna need to defend your company-state proprety against minorities, former employees and the annoying non-fascists.
So where do people think the money to build all those moon shots came from in the first place?
Wasnt' Silicon Valley born as a military R&D cluster? DARPA, Cold War defense contracts, and space race funding built the region. To me, the consumer internet phase from the late 1990s to early 2000s was actually the anomaly. The so called pacifist tech culture was a product of “peak liberalism” roughly 1991–2001 (fall of the soviet union to 9/11), the unipolar moment after the Cold War but before 9/11. US tech companies operated in a geopolitical environment without military rivals, so they could afford to frame themselves as apolitical, globalist, and focused on connecting the world. That cultural posture began to collapse after 9/11, and it has been eroding ever since under the pressures of great-power competition, terrorism, and the realization that software/chips are strategic assets. The pendulum is swinging... We aren't at McCarthyism yet but we are on a path to it.
Wasn’t the birth of Silicon Valley funded by military resources?
Or is it the silicon-valley-ization of the military? I mean, they've corrupted everything else, why wouldn't they be able to corrupt the military as well?
I think the title should be the “Re-Militarization” of Silicon Valley, bc that’s where it all came from anyway (as the title describes).
There is a paradigm shift that has occurred with the realization of the impending war drums beating for Blocs in East (China+allies) vs West (US+allies) and how it relates to our technocratic centers in SV & other key locations.
In the West if you run afoul of political elites in the worst case: you get imprisoned & cancelled, potentially bankrupted.
If speaking out mildly: you may have some dueling op-eds or lose a contract/customer. Big whoop
In the best case: you'll make tons of money and have great quality of life provided you don't become an overt monopoly, but even if you get broken up you'll make even more money.
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In the East if you run afoul of political elites in the worst case: you & your family will be disappeared, executed or harvested for body parts
If speaking out mildly: you may get sent to a re-education camp and lose control of your company & assets, or eat a negative social credit score
In the best case: you'll make tons of money and have great quality of life provided the Nation does not choose to nationalize you.
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While I may be broadly grouped on the nuanced Paleo-Libertarian R faction, I've been pretty content to work with my very L colleagues, that is the influential in our industry.
But let us not mistake the best case, likely case, and worst cases for the very different world views of East vs West.
As much as I have an anti-Color Revolution approach, I think much of the L has been very conscious of Ukraine / Chinese Nationalization, and State-Owned Enterprise organized theft of IP and lack of a rule of law.
If it comes down to a question of institutions, and outcomes, most of us vastly prefer those of the West bloc to the East bloc.
I wonder if this relates heavily to the Wall Street- and MBA-izatoin of Silicon Valley? It's just plain as day that building weapons is a really good business opportunity... so it isn't super surprising that as the companies become more practical and finance focused they'd get into this.
Makes sense.. the elites have outsourced much of the US manufacturing capacity during the neo-liberalism era.. and one of the major exports that still remain is defense and since capital always needs an avenue to exploit, defense is what it is for the capital giants.
It’s not new. The MIC built Silicon Valley.
Silicon valley has been an active party to the current genocide in Gaza. It is in fact well documented and will certainly be studied by future generations. If fascism doesn't own everything in between.
This is not new.
Does anyone else remember the good old days when the Secretary of Defense would fly to Redmond to meet with Bill Gates?
Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex. Hell, Fascism at times has meant the merging of corporations and the state*. This is the same thing. The important thing to recognize is its groups of power making an alliance - not that its an true economic or military strategy.
* although that's useless as a definition of fascism