Neil Stevenson's Hyperloop

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A lot of what billionaires are trying to push onto the world is inspired by these science fictional stories that they read as teenagers or young adults. imagine if The stories that you long was raised on were about the glories of hyperloop trains Then maybe instead of trying to pitch hyperloop in order to sabotage transit like a boring company would have been like I'm finally gonna really build a hyperloop Like that's the dream and all those friends would've been like oh my god There could be a hyperloop that would be amazing. That's what we need is like Neil Stevenson to write a hyperloop book Or a high speed rail book like you know give us thatLike I love trains. Yeah,

Paris Marx is joined by Dave Karpf to discuss Meta’s misguided attempt to turn Facebook into a metaverse company, how Wired Magazine has evolved, and why the tech billionaires are destroying the world.

Dave Karpf is an Associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University. He’s also the author of The MoveOn Effect: The Unexpected Transformation of American Political Advocacy and Analytic Activism: Digital Listening and the New Political Strategy. Follow Dave on Twitter at @davekarpf.

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.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Dave wrote about the history of WIRED Magazine’s future predictions and why VR never dies.
People Make Games made a video looking at what’s going on in VRChat.
Meta’s legs demo wasn’t real.
Douglas Rushkoff’s new book Survival of the Richest looks at how the rich are trying to protect themselves from the crises they’re making worse.
Science fiction books mentioned: Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, and William Gibson’s The Peripheral.