Steve Jobs and the Microchip Era

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A lot of these people kind of have that aesthetic of the counterculture and then are often using it to try to turn out a business. Stuart Brand was always trying to turned out a business with the various things he was doing in the hippie movement or whatever. Steve Jobs does the same thing, right? It's like IBM is like the old kind of computer company, the old hierarchical corporation. Apple were the new kind of individualistic company that's empowering you as the individual that's taken down these hierarchies. But we're eventually building what's going to become the biggest company in the world by market cap.

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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