War Bros Didn't Always Rule Silicon Valley
6 hours ago
- Peter Thiel's ignorance of computer pioneer Alan Kay at a Founders Fund retreat illustrates a cultural disconnect between old and new tech generations.
- The author refutes Sharon Weinberger's claim that Silicon Valley's values were always about wealth and military, arguing instead that genuine counterculture idealism drove innovation.
- Counterculture values from 1970s labs (Stanford, PARC, Homebrew Computer Club) created the personal computer industry and consumer market, not just profit-seeking.
- The shift from defense to consumer tech was a generational political change, not mere market adaptation, as shown by the Valley's later Democratic leanings.
- Current War Bros (defense contractors) are a small, self-interested group that has hijacked the original values of Silicon Valley.
- Denying the existence of past idealism lets new defense contractors off the hook for their deadly products.