Doug Rushkoff, a leading theorist on digital culture, has voiced his concerns about the current state of technology, suggesting that tech billionaires are in “escape mode,” planning for catastrophic events and creating virtual realities to escape from societal realities that their own industry are causing. Speaking of Mark Zuckerberg and those like him, Rushkoff says, “They’re torturing themselves now, which is kind of fun to see. They’re afraid that their little AIs are going to come for them. They’re apocalyptic, and so existential, because they have no connection to real life and how things work.”
The Guardian reports that leading digital culture theorist Doug Rushkoff has expressed his concerns about the state of technology today, claiming that tech billionaires are in “escape mode,” preparing for catastrophic events and building virtual worlds to escape from societal realities that their own companies are helping create.
Elon Musk’s Halloween costume (Taylor Hill /Getty)
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 01: Peter Thiel, Partner, Founders Fund, speaks at the New York Times DealBook conference on November 1, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
Rushkoff, a professor at City University of New York, recently gave an interview to the Guardian in which he discussed his opinions on recent changes in the tech sector. He thinks that the tech elite are building bunkers on islands, planning missions to Mars, and creating a virtual metaverse in order to get ready for “The Event,” which is code for a catastrophic climate collapse.
“They’re torturing themselves now, which is kind of fun to see. They’re afraid that their little AIs are going to come for them. They’re apocalyptic, and so existential, because they have no connection to real life and how things work,” Rushkoff said.
In his most recent book, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, Rushkoff makes a number of observations about the tech elite. He refers to this behavior as “The Mindset,” a way of thinking that views technological advancement as an escape game.
“For them, the future of technology is about only one thing: escape from the rest of us,” he wrote in the book’s opening pages. “They’ve reduced technological progress to a video game that one of them wins by finding an escape hatch.”
Rushkoff criticizes this behavior and likens it to sociopathic capitalism, claiming that it won’t work. He uses the space migration fantasies of tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel’s New Zealand home, and Mark Zuckerberg’s digital universe as examples of their escape mentality.
“They’re not getting off the planet, they’re not going to live forever. They’re just living out their fantasies. They are eugenicists,” Rushkoff said.
Rushkoff also covered the negative effects of social media, drawing parallels to the cigarette business. He asserts that social media companies will eventually experience what happened to the cigarette industry.
“What happened to the cigarette companies will eventually happen to the social media companies,” he predicts. “They’ve had all the research for 20 years, and they’ve been knowingly saying this stuff is not harmful when they know it to be harmful.”
Despite his criticisms, Rushkoff is of the opinion that individual responsibility and choice, rather than government intervention, are the best ways to address technological problems. He promotes being social, human, and rooted in actual life experiences.
Rushkoff said that the only way to rebel is to be human and aware. “Be social, get your feet on the ground, make eye contact, have sex, meet people, breathe the air. The more real-life ballast you have, the less this brittle, ideological, abstracted, social media-mediated universe bears upon your daily existence,” Rushkoff concluded.
Read more at the Guardian here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan