“Oh, have we decided it’s 1993 again? I guess I didn’t get the memo.”
October 18, 2023 7:58 AM Subscribe
If unchecked markets worked as well as Andreessen insists, we wouldn't be in this mess. The most powerful people in the world are technological optimists. They asked for our trust in the 90s, the 00s, and the 10s. They insisted that all we needed to do was clap louder. We clapped. They failed. We grew less trustful. - On Marc Andreessen's "techno-optimist manifesto"
mittens, is there a non-paywalled link to the cartoon, or a name or date for looking up elsewhere?
posted by eviemath at 8:05 AM on October 18, 2023 [28 favorites]
posted by eviemath at 8:05 AM on October 18, 2023 [28 favorites]
Based on what I see teens wearing these days, they've decided it's 1998 or so.
posted by thecjm at 8:09 AM on October 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by thecjm at 8:09 AM on October 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Marc Andreessen's Techno-Optimist Manifesto as redaction poetry
posted by Artw at 8:09 AM on October 18, 2023 [13 favorites]
posted by Artw at 8:09 AM on October 18, 2023 [13 favorites]
If only we could have some people with depressive realism condition as leaders. Unfortunately, they're all pretty sure that wouldn't end well for them.
posted by amtho at 8:13 AM on October 18, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by amtho at 8:13 AM on October 18, 2023 [11 favorites]
Great post: Dave Karpf is fire.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 8:14 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 8:14 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Tom Tomorrow via bsky:
Requires a Bluesky account.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:27 AM on October 18, 2023 [19 favorites]
Requires a Bluesky account.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:27 AM on October 18, 2023 [19 favorites]
Karpf's reply is more thoughtful and insightful than pmarca's blog post deserved. Warmed over technoutopianism with fascist characteristics is really not interesting. I do appreciate how the essay landed like a damp fart though. Even the Hacker News crowd hated it.
Is there one good essay that points out how hollow Andreessen's career as a VC leader has been? I mean of course the man has had some significant investment successes and for better or worse is seen as a visionary in my industry. But there's a lot of garbage and bad things hiding in his world view. Like the last 3 years of them being all-in on cryptoscams. I've seen this evolve over the years but I'd love a summary I can point other people to.
Here's the cartoon Tom Tomorrow posted. (100% SFW; imgur is worried because it has the word "playboy" in it.)
posted by Nelson at 8:27 AM on October 18, 2023 [32 favorites]
Is there one good essay that points out how hollow Andreessen's career as a VC leader has been? I mean of course the man has had some significant investment successes and for better or worse is seen as a visionary in my industry. But there's a lot of garbage and bad things hiding in his world view. Like the last 3 years of them being all-in on cryptoscams. I've seen this evolve over the years but I'd love a summary I can point other people to.
Here's the cartoon Tom Tomorrow posted. (100% SFW; imgur is worried because it has the word "playboy" in it.)
posted by Nelson at 8:27 AM on October 18, 2023 [32 favorites]
The essay calls out two of the fascist dog whistles but there’s still a bunch more in there, including an obsession with “depopulation” which sure sounds like an off-ramp to replacement theory.
posted by Artw at 8:30 AM on October 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Artw at 8:30 AM on October 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
jwz has reported that Andreesen is toxic from both ends.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:31 AM on October 18, 2023 [38 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:31 AM on October 18, 2023 [38 favorites]
This bit caught my eye:
Our enemy is the ivory tower, the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable – playing God with everyone else’s lives, with total insulation from the consequences.
posted by doctornemo at 8:36 AM on October 18, 2023 [11 favorites]
Our enemy is the ivory tower, the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable – playing God with everyone else’s lives, with total insulation from the consequences.
posted by doctornemo at 8:36 AM on October 18, 2023 [11 favorites]
hahahaha they censored the header image that is definitely a reference to an old shock image that I shall not name here due to I don't want anyone to accidentally see it trying to find more information. I love this.
posted by robotmachine at 8:38 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by robotmachine at 8:38 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable – playing God with everyone else’s lives, with total insulation from the consequences.
my irony meter just vaporized
posted by hangashore at 8:39 AM on October 18, 2023 [41 favorites]
my irony meter just vaporized
posted by hangashore at 8:39 AM on October 18, 2023 [41 favorites]
A bit disjointed, but that Karpf post is a fun read! Very 00s blog vibes to the whole thing, which tracks.
I cannot get over that Andreessen manifesto. What a weird self-own.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:42 AM on October 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
I cannot get over that Andreessen manifesto. What a weird self-own.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:42 AM on October 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Does Andreessen technology dial go to 11 ?
posted by bluefrog at 8:54 AM on October 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by bluefrog at 8:54 AM on October 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
He writes “We believe any deceleration of AI will cost lives. Deaths that were preventable by the AI that was prevented from existing is a form of murder.”
I am absolutely not going to go try to find out, but I'd bet dollars to donuts this argument was cribbed from some forum of people trying to figure out how to get into Roko's Basilisk's good graces.
posted by solotoro at 8:56 AM on October 18, 2023 [20 favorites]
I am absolutely not going to go try to find out, but I'd bet dollars to donuts this argument was cribbed from some forum of people trying to figure out how to get into Roko's Basilisk's good graces.
posted by solotoro at 8:56 AM on October 18, 2023 [20 favorites]
I mean...c'mon guys what if pmarca hadn't invented the IMG tag?
Where would we be today? We'd all be using BLINK, right?
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:57 AM on October 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Where would we be today? We'd all be using BLINK, right?
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:57 AM on October 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
I liked this post by Jason Lefkowitz:
I see people trying to engage with the Andreessen thing on a philosophical level, which I think is a mistake, because despite its pretensions it has nothing to do with philosophy. What it's about is a bruised ego.posted by gwint at 8:59 AM on October 18, 2023 [62 favorites]
Andreessen doesn't like the way people look at his investments critically these days. He doesn't like the questions he gets today about environmental impact, labor mistreatment, racial and sexual discrimination, and so forth at his portfolio companies. He bristles at assuming the responsibilities required of any grown-up business person.
What he wants instead is to go back to the oughts, when the entire global media edifice was credulously repeating the line that his investments weren't just making him and his rich friends richer, but were improving the world to boot. He liked that treatment quite well. He would very much like the rest of us to go back to giving it to him.
But he can't just, you know, SAY that. He'd be laughed out of the room if he did. So he has to dress it all up as a philosophical argument, as A Movement, even if by doing so he makes it clear just how tenuous his grasp is of the works he's quoting, and just how much of his worldview came from reading “thinkers” whose personal mission was to comfort the comfortable.
Which makes it tempting to dunk on, I know. But don't bother, because the philosophy is beside the point. It's all just window dressing placed to obscure the fundamental point: the world used to tell this guy his farts smelled like flowers; at some point, it stopped; and he'd really like it to start back up again.
To paraphrase a manifesto of a different time and place: “Beauty exists only in struggle. There is no masterpiece that has not an aggressive character. Technology must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man.”
Hey, you make a point of citing your other references in a way that feels almost more namedrop-y. Why does this one get smoothed away to "a manifest of a different time and place"? Oh wait, you list the author down in the name of patron saints.
Hey, you make a point of citing your other references in a way that feels almost more namedrop-y. Why does this one get smoothed away to "a manifest of a different time and place"? Oh wait, you list the author down in the name of patron saints.
Also, that “manifesto of a different time and place” is the Futurist Manifesto, written in 1909 by Italian poet F.T. Marinetti. A decade later, Marinetti would be a principal author of the Fascist Manifesto. Andreessen also approvingly quotes accelerationist/neo-reactionary philosopher Nick Land. He’s kind of saying the quiet part out loud there — these are anti-democratic fascists, of the sort that dip pretty quickly into eugenicist and ethnonationalist fantasies. If you’re curious who Andreessen views as helpful fellow travelers, he sure ain’t hiding it.posted by CrystalDave at 9:01 AM on October 18, 2023 [30 favorites]
"Oh, have we decided it’s 1993 again?"
I was just thinking this morning about how cartoonishly badly "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" and 'Code Is Law" aged, but... Dang, at least their authors got a few good months of people taking them seriously out of it, you know? This nonsense hit the internet like bird hitting a plate glass window, just stone dead before it even hit the pavement.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer self-important middle-aged narcissist. It was kind of beautiful, in a way. I mean, good work, team, well done, I'm proud of us all.
posted by mhoye at 9:05 AM on October 18, 2023 [13 favorites]
I was just thinking this morning about how cartoonishly badly "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" and 'Code Is Law" aged, but... Dang, at least their authors got a few good months of people taking them seriously out of it, you know? This nonsense hit the internet like bird hitting a plate glass window, just stone dead before it even hit the pavement.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer self-important middle-aged narcissist. It was kind of beautiful, in a way. I mean, good work, team, well done, I'm proud of us all.
posted by mhoye at 9:05 AM on October 18, 2023 [13 favorites]
The whole thing is so cringe. Like, I read it out loud to my spouse and several times we started laughing. At the same time, it is scary that a man this powerful can only muster this and seemingly has thought processes that don't go beyond what a 12 year old would cough up for a rushed philosophy essay.
posted by vacapinta at 9:05 AM on October 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by vacapinta at 9:05 AM on October 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
Andreessen also approvingly quotes accelerationist/neo-reactionary philosopher Nick Land.
... but I think that my favourite part is that first three "references" are, no joke, just links to Twitter shitposters. It's amazing. The psychological swoop of it, like reading A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING EUROPE followed immediately by some deep-fried scooby-doo meme.
posted by mhoye at 9:07 AM on October 18, 2023 [16 favorites]
... but I think that my favourite part is that first three "references" are, no joke, just links to Twitter shitposters. It's amazing. The psychological swoop of it, like reading A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING EUROPE followed immediately by some deep-fried scooby-doo meme.
posted by mhoye at 9:07 AM on October 18, 2023 [16 favorites]
Oddly enough, I was thinking, just the other day "Whatever happened to Marc Andreesen?" It hadn't occurred to me that he was simply so irrelevant that he'd faded into obscurity. Now if only we could get Musk to follow suit.
posted by evilDoug at 9:31 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by evilDoug at 9:31 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Oh. My.
I just read that “manifesto”.
That screed is an incredible pile of steaming hooey.
The ramblings of an idiot high on his own supply.
Ridiculous wakadoodle nonsense.
That is not even worth the time or energy to engage with or debate. You’d be better off trying to convince a flat-earther the world is a sphere.
posted by fimbulvetr at 9:44 AM on October 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
I just read that “manifesto”.
That screed is an incredible pile of steaming hooey.
The ramblings of an idiot high on his own supply.
Ridiculous wakadoodle nonsense.
That is not even worth the time or energy to engage with or debate. You’d be better off trying to convince a flat-earther the world is a sphere.
posted by fimbulvetr at 9:44 AM on October 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
I think it's worth noting that Andreessen isn't really what you'd think of as a geek anymore? He's not staying up all night wired on Jolt Cola creating the cutting edge in a new technology. He's an investor. He's a man with money who believes that his possession of money entitles him to a) status and b) more money. Is it any wonder he's lashing out, screaming "YOU HAVE TO TELL ME I'M GOOD" and playing footsie with elitist and fascist ideologies? Like all professional rich investors, he's face to face with the fact that he contributes nothing to this world but has an outsized ability to shape it, and that requires justifications which are as absurd and grotesque as the reality of his economic existence.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:55 AM on October 18, 2023 [26 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:55 AM on October 18, 2023 [26 favorites]
That’s all of these fuckers really. If they ever did anything real in the world it was a long time ago, and most of them never did.
posted by Artw at 9:57 AM on October 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Artw at 9:57 AM on October 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
Andreessen and his firm Andreessen Horowitz (styled "a16z") are still one of the most influential tech industry VCs there are. They currently manage $35B in various funds. When they talk the whole industry notices and they have a lot of influence. It's reasonable to say "all tech VC is awful" but within the pecking order of tech VC, Andreessen Horowitz is still one of the big ones.
Here's a recent overview that's tilting into skepticism; three years ago those articles would have been 100% fawning. My friends who actually make tech mostly think the firm is a little past its best days and that Andreessen himself is a self-important jerk. OTOH landing an a16z investment on your cap table is still a highly prestigious mark of endorsement, I don't know many companies raising VC that'd turn them away.
A particular low point is that a16z bet all-in on cryptocurrency scams, most visibly through their GP Chris Dixon. In particular they figured out early on they could get an exit in an investment far before an actual working company, acquisition, or IPO. Just mint some tokens and dump them on the market you pump before it collapses. Now that crypto is finally understood to be a scam by the general public those investments are starting to look real stinky. They probably still made a killing on them though.
posted by Nelson at 10:03 AM on October 18, 2023 [11 favorites]
Here's a recent overview that's tilting into skepticism; three years ago those articles would have been 100% fawning. My friends who actually make tech mostly think the firm is a little past its best days and that Andreessen himself is a self-important jerk. OTOH landing an a16z investment on your cap table is still a highly prestigious mark of endorsement, I don't know many companies raising VC that'd turn them away.
A particular low point is that a16z bet all-in on cryptocurrency scams, most visibly through their GP Chris Dixon. In particular they figured out early on they could get an exit in an investment far before an actual working company, acquisition, or IPO. Just mint some tokens and dump them on the market you pump before it collapses. Now that crypto is finally understood to be a scam by the general public those investments are starting to look real stinky. They probably still made a killing on them though.
posted by Nelson at 10:03 AM on October 18, 2023 [11 favorites]
As someone pointed out somewhere this crap is what you have to pretend to believe if you want some of that investment money from them.
The section I find funniest is the “Markets” one, because they absolutely in no way would enjoy any of that being true. They didn’t do any of that crap to make crypto work, then used money and influence and brute force to try and force it into happening and are no doubt quite sulky that it didn’t v
posted by Artw at 10:11 AM on October 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
The section I find funniest is the “Markets” one, because they absolutely in no way would enjoy any of that being true. They didn’t do any of that crap to make crypto work, then used money and influence and brute force to try and force it into happening and are no doubt quite sulky that it didn’t v
posted by Artw at 10:11 AM on October 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
I throw up my hands as to whether I should be happy or sad that this weird manifesto won’t ever hit the mainstream press
posted by Going To Maine at 10:13 AM on October 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Going To Maine at 10:13 AM on October 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
It’d be especially good if it made it into print with the original image as they wouldn’t be able to change it.
posted by Artw at 10:14 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Artw at 10:14 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
This seems like a good time to bring up Patrick S. Farley's classic comic strip, The Guy I Almost Was. (You have to view it through http because https causes the images to fail to load.)
I think it captures the 90s and 2000s "information longs to be free" cyberculture vibe well.
And this mefi previously when R.U. Sirius passed away does as well.
posted by AlSweigart at 10:15 AM on October 18, 2023 [9 favorites]
I think it captures the 90s and 2000s "information longs to be free" cyberculture vibe well.
And this mefi previously when R.U. Sirius passed away does as well.
posted by AlSweigart at 10:15 AM on October 18, 2023 [9 favorites]
Why does this one get smoothed away to "a manifest of a different time and place"?
Five bucks says our guy googled "futuristic manifesto", read the first link, liked the sound of it, hit control-c, then control-v, then didn't give it a single other thought.
posted by mhoye at 10:15 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Five bucks says our guy googled "futuristic manifesto", read the first link, liked the sound of it, hit control-c, then control-v, then didn't give it a single other thought.
posted by mhoye at 10:15 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Also related, I'd like to bring up the movie Glass Onion and I will spoil it's best line:
"Miles Bron is an idiot."
posted by AlSweigart at 10:17 AM on October 18, 2023 [13 favorites]
"Miles Bron is an idiot."
posted by AlSweigart at 10:17 AM on October 18, 2023 [13 favorites]
Previously on a16z's crypto investments, mentioned by Nelson above.
posted by fedward at 10:22 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by fedward at 10:22 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
They (various old unicorns) ran out of new niches to colonize. The existing niches are... stagnant. Doesn't help that Google and Facebook eat/buy the competition. A lot of the AI/Crypto/NFT stuff looks like a new generation of wannabe unicorns trying to invent a new niche to colonize. Only problem is that niches are made up of human desires or needs and they aren't meeting any (beyond straight greed).
Metaverse looks like an example of trying to force a new, colonizable niche into existence. And boy howdy.
So on tech optimism? No, I'm thinking there's a lot of small gains to make but the biggest land grand (and this, shareholder value generators) have come and gone.
posted by Slackermagee at 10:24 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Metaverse looks like an example of trying to force a new, colonizable niche into existence. And boy howdy.
So on tech optimism? No, I'm thinking there's a lot of small gains to make but the biggest land grand (and this, shareholder value generators) have come and gone.
posted by Slackermagee at 10:24 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Matt WordPress called the manifesto “exciting”. Sad trombone.
posted by bixfrankonis at 10:59 AM on October 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by bixfrankonis at 10:59 AM on October 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
Over the summer I was back in the UK at my dads house helping tidy some things up, which now he’s retired means there were a bunch of obsolete tech and business books that weren’t needed anymore. Anyway, I got to throw out a copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto.
(I have a sneaking feeling that one might have been mine to begin with)
posted by Artw at 11:29 AM on October 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
(I have a sneaking feeling that one might have been mine to begin with)
posted by Artw at 11:29 AM on October 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
The guy won the lottery in his twenties by virtue of being in the right place at the right time with Netscape. Instead of growing up like the rest of us and realizing that the techno-libertarian utopia was actually not happening; he remains frozen in that time.
posted by interogative mood at 11:34 AM on October 18, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by interogative mood at 11:34 AM on October 18, 2023 [9 favorites]
The irony of this rebuttal being posted to Substack is, I hope, not lost on the author.
posted by parm at 11:38 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by parm at 11:38 AM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Ted Han: I haven't really been paying close attention to the state of the discourse around Marc Andreessen's screed, but i just want to say out loud that Andreessen has been selling this same moldering bag of bad ideas since Curtis Yarvin & all the Dark Enlightenment nonsense in like 2007 onwards.
“Techno-reactionary” is a much more accurate term than "techno-optimist”
posted by Artw at 11:46 AM on October 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
“Techno-reactionary” is a much more accurate term than "techno-optimist”
posted by Artw at 11:46 AM on October 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
The bit where he says the world's population should be 50 billion is where it got bizarre for me. All lines must go up!
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 12:59 PM on October 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 12:59 PM on October 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
I legit wonder if ChatGPT wrote most of this
posted by Going To Maine at 1:13 PM on October 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 1:13 PM on October 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
That 50 billion number is based on "hey, everyone's gonna be pretty miserable but there will be *so* *many* *people* that the sum total of human happiness has gotta be higher, amirite?"
Andreessen's never done the difficult thing. He co-wrote the second (or possibly fifth) graphical web browser, and received a load of US federal support to do so. He's always played the game in easy mode, with access to plenty of capital. That's why he sneers at fair society.
posted by scruss at 1:22 PM on October 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
Andreessen's never done the difficult thing. He co-wrote the second (or possibly fifth) graphical web browser, and received a load of US federal support to do so. He's always played the game in easy mode, with access to plenty of capital. That's why he sneers at fair society.
posted by scruss at 1:22 PM on October 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
I legit wonder if ChatGPT wrote most of this
Doesn’t have the high school essay padding I’d associate with that but maybe they deleted all the bits that said “the definition of growth is…”.
posted by Artw at 1:24 PM on October 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
Doesn’t have the high school essay padding I’d associate with that but maybe they deleted all the bits that said “the definition of growth is…”.
posted by Artw at 1:24 PM on October 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
Andreessen identifies himself with technology, but it's just money he identifies with. He's looking to further the same old enshittification cycle that's ruled the past three decades. VC tech never does anything good long-term; it only tries to lead you into thinking it's good as a loss leader, when you're too bought-in to change. You know, what Google said they wouldn't do then did, with Youtube.
Everyone's dunking on him here. You should, the man is a doughnut. Keep doing it. It's fun! I'm not sure I have much to offer that people haven't already said though.
If you want more laffs, look at Netscape's Wikipedia page: "The first meeting between Clark and Andreessen was never truly about a software or service like Netscape, but more about a product that was similar to Nintendo." "During this period, Netscape also pursued a publicity strategy (crafted by Rosanne Siino, then head of public relations) packaging Andreessen as the company's 'rock star.'" That's what he misses.
Don't forget, as Andreessen seems to, that Netscape's failure didn't come at the hands of the media or governments, but Microsoft, another corporation doing corporation things.
There is reason to be optimistic about tech, but it's not about corporate-backed tech. Andreessen's not using his money to help Fediversal tools. I love the idea of people doing something like that for themselves. If it hits it big then I'm sure companies of the sort that Andreessen founds will be falling over themselves to buy in and position themselves as the real Fediverse. Until then, I really like the idea that something new might arise that looks like the email of old, or Usenet, or IRC, or stuff like that.
Anyway. Andreessen is only two years older than I am. He's done more with his life than I have, I recognize. But then, he's always been composed mostly of lucre, a moneyman, while I've struggled to survive in southern Georgia. He soaked up so much of that delicious oxygen, but as I hope we're all seeing here, oxygen is also a poison.
posted by JHarris at 1:27 PM on October 18, 2023 [14 favorites]
Everyone's dunking on him here. You should, the man is a doughnut. Keep doing it. It's fun! I'm not sure I have much to offer that people haven't already said though.
If you want more laffs, look at Netscape's Wikipedia page: "The first meeting between Clark and Andreessen was never truly about a software or service like Netscape, but more about a product that was similar to Nintendo." "During this period, Netscape also pursued a publicity strategy (crafted by Rosanne Siino, then head of public relations) packaging Andreessen as the company's 'rock star.'" That's what he misses.
Don't forget, as Andreessen seems to, that Netscape's failure didn't come at the hands of the media or governments, but Microsoft, another corporation doing corporation things.
There is reason to be optimistic about tech, but it's not about corporate-backed tech. Andreessen's not using his money to help Fediversal tools. I love the idea of people doing something like that for themselves. If it hits it big then I'm sure companies of the sort that Andreessen founds will be falling over themselves to buy in and position themselves as the real Fediverse. Until then, I really like the idea that something new might arise that looks like the email of old, or Usenet, or IRC, or stuff like that.
Anyway. Andreessen is only two years older than I am. He's done more with his life than I have, I recognize. But then, he's always been composed mostly of lucre, a moneyman, while I've struggled to survive in southern Georgia. He soaked up so much of that delicious oxygen, but as I hope we're all seeing here, oxygen is also a poison.
posted by JHarris at 1:27 PM on October 18, 2023 [14 favorites]
If there is to be a future, Andreessen and the all the rest of the TESCREAL cretins must be opposed at all costs by any means necessary.
posted by ob1quixote at 1:49 PM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by ob1quixote at 1:49 PM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Did anyone else's dad perpetually refer to the browser as "Nutscrape Navigator" or was that just mine?
posted by Earthtopus at 1:52 PM on October 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Earthtopus at 1:52 PM on October 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
Better than Internet Exploder
posted by migurski at 1:57 PM on October 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by migurski at 1:57 PM on October 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
I remember supporting the tail end of 4 and that was not my opinion then.
Of course we didn’t see IE 6 up ahead being all of everything for a good long while.
posted by Artw at 2:02 PM on October 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Of course we didn’t see IE 6 up ahead being all of everything for a good long while.
posted by Artw at 2:02 PM on October 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Did anyone else's dad perpetually refer to the browser as "Nutscrape Navigator" or was that just mine?
There is a whole class of people functionally incapable of not altering brand names in this way to things like "Nutscrape Navigator" "Scamazon" "Microshaft" etc. somehow among my coworkers this is group overrepresented compared to the general population.
posted by Dr. Twist at 2:22 PM on October 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
There is a whole class of people functionally incapable of not altering brand names in this way to things like "Nutscrape Navigator" "Scamazon" "Microshaft" etc. somehow among my coworkers this is group overrepresented compared to the general population.
posted by Dr. Twist at 2:22 PM on October 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
I remember calling it "Netscarp Nobbledygator" but honestly I couldn't tell you why.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:17 PM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:17 PM on October 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
My mom is constantly asking me questions about how to use her web browser "Foxfire" and it's adorable.
posted by straight at 8:07 PM on October 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by straight at 8:07 PM on October 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
Don't forget "Mazola FoxFire"
posted by Wild_Eep at 7:21 AM on October 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Wild_Eep at 7:21 AM on October 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
wut
posted by mazola at 10:08 AM on October 19, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by mazola at 10:08 AM on October 19, 2023 [7 favorites]
There is a whole class of people functionally incapable of not altering brand names in this way
This thread has given me a reminder of an unpleasant coworker from 25+ years ago who I think actually understood that it wasn't funny but consciously kept doing it anyway. So: thanks, I hate it.
posted by fedward at 10:38 AM on October 19, 2023
This thread has given me a reminder of an unpleasant coworker from 25+ years ago who I think actually understood that it wasn't funny but consciously kept doing it anyway. So: thanks, I hate it.
posted by fedward at 10:38 AM on October 19, 2023
Don't forget "Mazola FoxFire"
You call it corn; we called it maize.
posted by straight at 1:49 PM on October 19, 2023
You call it corn; we called it maize.
posted by straight at 1:49 PM on October 19, 2023
JoeyZydeco: what if pmarca hadn't invented the IMG tag?
What's an <IMG> tag? Looks like nothing at all to me.
posted by k3ninho at 1:59 PM on October 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
What's an <IMG> tag? Looks like nothing at all to me.
posted by k3ninho at 1:59 PM on October 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
The guy won the lottery in his twenties by virtue of being in the right place at the right time with Netscape. Instead of growing up like the rest of us and realizing that the techno-libertarian utopia was actually not happening; he remains frozen in that time.
That's the thing: he was airdropped onto third base and has fooled himself (and a whole bunch of people) into thinking that he not only invented baseball but has it in him to create baseball's successor.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:04 PM on October 19, 2023 [6 favorites]
That's the thing: he was airdropped onto third base and has fooled himself (and a whole bunch of people) into thinking that he not only invented baseball but has it in him to create baseball's successor.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:04 PM on October 19, 2023 [6 favorites]
Ed Zitron: Everything Looks Like A Nail.
Marc’s essay is an embarrassment to the tech industry, - a meandering complaint-fest that poses nothing other than the vaguest libertarian propaganda, non-specifically framing “enemies” without having the courage to point to anyone specifically. Marc pantomimes being a firebrand in the same way that he pantomimes being a futurist —-- by making no real suggestions or calls to action but doing so with a lot of bloviating and pontificating that never really seems to go anywhere. A16Z hasn’t made billions creating a technological utopia. - they’ve done so by adding as many layers of tech to society as possible, for better (Stripe, Plaid) and for worse (Airbnb, Instacart, and every Web3 investment).posted by Nelson at 5:41 PM on October 19, 2023 [5 favorites]
"Techno-Optimists believe that societies, like sharks, grow or die."
(1) that's a really weird version of optimism
(2) are there like giant, constantly growing sharks out there, and everybody just refuses to talk about it?
posted by mabelstreet at 6:06 PM on October 19, 2023 [4 favorites]
(1) that's a really weird version of optimism
(2) are there like giant, constantly growing sharks out there, and everybody just refuses to talk about it?
posted by mabelstreet at 6:06 PM on October 19, 2023 [4 favorites]
> "Techno-Optimists believe that societies, like sharks, grow or die."
dunno why I misread that as "sharts", but it made me laugh
posted by Pronoiac at 10:21 PM on October 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
dunno why I misread that as "sharts", but it made me laugh
posted by Pronoiac at 10:21 PM on October 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
I remember a guy (who worked in a Token Ring shop) referring to the alternative as 'Reefer-net'.
Which kinda made sense to me considering how it worked at the time. (Maybe it still does)
posted by MtDewd at 5:36 AM on October 20, 2023
Which kinda made sense to me considering how it worked at the time. (Maybe it still does)
posted by MtDewd at 5:36 AM on October 20, 2023
“‘Techno-optimism’ is a sign of V.C. crisis,” Max Read, Read Max, 20 October 2023
It's not funny, V.C.s only do this when they’re in extreme distress.posted by ob1quixote at 11:21 AM on October 20, 2023 [6 favorites]
I too would like to know the insider history of the manifestos accompanying goat.se style image.
posted by Artw at 11:34 AM on October 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 11:34 AM on October 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
The best thing I've ever read on technology is Neil Postman's Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Don't discount it because it's 30 years old; it's timeless.
posted by neuron at 10:40 AM on October 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by neuron at 10:40 AM on October 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
Pretty sure that sharks have to swim or die.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:49 AM on October 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:49 AM on October 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
... but I think that my favourite part is that first three "references" are, no joke, just links to Twitter shitposters. It's amazing. The psychological swoop of it, like reading A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING EUROPE followed immediately by some deep-fried scooby-doo meme.
otoh, deep-fried scooby-doo nuggets
are a great addition to the 'mmhmm' list
posted by y2karl at 1:47 PM on October 21, 2023
otoh, deep-fried scooby-doo nuggets
are a great addition to the 'mmhmm' list
posted by y2karl at 1:47 PM on October 21, 2023
(2) are there like giant, constantly growing sharks out there, and everybody just refuses to talk about it?
They made a documentary about it a couple years back.
posted by AdamCSnider at 5:17 PM on October 21, 2023
They made a documentary about it a couple years back.
posted by AdamCSnider at 5:17 PM on October 21, 2023
A Tech Billionaire’s Case for Why Tech Billionaires Should Rule the World
posted by Artw at 11:56 AM on October 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Artw at 11:56 AM on October 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
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posted by mittens at 8:03 AM on October 18, 2023 [8 favorites]