The Dangerous Propaganda Of Techno-Optimism

Techno-optimism is now a well funded campaign that promotes billionaire backed future innovations as opposed to already available systemic solutions.
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Techno-optimism is a toxic mindset that weaponizes positive thinking to perpetuate structures that caused our problems and guild everyone who speaks out against them. Techno-optimism has become a trend since about the mid 2010s. When suddenly wealthy tech entrepreneurs started giving speeches and talks, writing instant best sellers and featuring in popular podcasts amassing millions of hits. Now it’s a well funded campaign hellbent on convincing policy makers that wealthy investors will figure out what’s best for all of us.

The basic premise of techno-optimism goes like this – we don’t need to invest in robust public transit in our cities. We can just dig single-lane tunnels for taxis to drive through them. We don’t need high-speed rail, we’ll have hyperloop and electric cars. We don’t need a living wage, we’ll have automation doing all of the hard work for us. We don’t need a systemic reform today because we’ll have a technological solution in the future.

Sources [references in the transcript]
[0] https://oxfam.app.box.com/s/1rp115i9uiwmvsa11mwaa00vwc6ic437
[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-generated-data-can-poison-future-ai-models/
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00478-x
[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2588912517300085?via%3Dihub
[4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41545-021-00101-w
[5] https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/water-power-plant-cooling
[6] https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/data-center-water-usage-remains-hidden/
[7] https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/opinions/an-industry-in-transition-1-data-center-water-use/
[8] https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/drought-stricken-communities-push-back-a..