The Evolution of Humanity: A Novel by David Star Jordan

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Hoover is a character that I was surprised to see come up in the book. But there's a piece of this that I do want to return to as we, you know, before we move away from this early period at Stanford. One of the original focuses is something called bio-nomics, which has all these assumptions about evolution and evolution's direction - eugenic or not. Like competition and hierarchy specifically are the root of existence of all things. It's still the ideology of a bunch of Silicon Valley fundamentally.

Paris Marx is joined by Malcolm Harris to discuss the sordid history of Silicon Valley, including the long influence of eugenics at Stanford, how Silicon Valley profited from the United States’ wars throughout the 20th century, and why the libertarian narrative of tech hide a much darker reality.

Malcolm Harris is the author of Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World. You can follow Malcolm on Twitter at @BigMeanInternet.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

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