1.
TECHNOLOGICAL
UTOPIANISM
IN SILICON VALLEY
Donnerstag, 3. September 2015
Thomas Klaffke | Matrikel-Nr.: 4835459 | E-mail: thomas.klaffke@gmail.com
Modul: 12981 Blockseminar 2 im Modul 4: „Konzepte, Ziele, Herausforderungen“ | SS 2015
Prüfer: Prof. Dr. Reinhold Popp
Masterstudiengang Zukunftsforschung

2.
Table of Contents
Introduction 2
1. Defining Technological Utopianism 3
1.1. History of Utopias 3
1.2. Principles of Technological Utopianism 4
2. Technological Utopianism in Silicon Valley 6
2.1. The History of the Silicon Valley 7
2.2. From Californian Ideology to Singulariatarianism 9
Conclusion 14
Bibliography 16
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Introduction
Since the dawn of civilization, there have always been dreams about a future in which
problems of the respective present are gone and where harmony and abundance rule.
People of all sorts of backgrounds - novelists, socialists, environmentalists, scientists,
philosophers, engineers - have all publicized visions of such futures, while some have even
worked on realizing them. But what are today’s utopian visions? Where do they come
from? Where are they predominantly present and what impact do they have?
When someone strives to answer such questions, he or she might stumble upon the Silicon
Valley, a region south of San Francisco, California, most notably known for its startup and
innovation culture. Here, entrepreneurs, university students, corporations and investors
alike are attracted by an ecosystem best suited for inventing the „next big thing“: young
talented professionals, government funding, venture capitalism and a mindset that
technology makes everything possible. It is this mindset that this seminar paper tries to
analyze, a technological utopian ideology that inspires individuals to come to the Valley, to
strive for disruptive innovation, and to built the future.
The notion of the coming Technological Singularity comes to mind. The idea, that
technological progress accelerates exponentially and that approximately in the middle of
the 21st century we might witness such rapid changes that human life and the whole world
will be irreversibly transformed. The Singularitarians argue, that this will ultimately usher
in an era where humans merge with machines, where resources become abundant and
where immortality and super-intelligence becomes possible. One, so argue its proponents,
just has to grasp the potentials of the so-called exponential technologies in order to built
the utopian future the Technological Singularity promises. Hence, corporations,1
entrepreneurs and investors are highly attracted by it. However, many questions remain.
Looking at the broad history of technological utopianism for example, various visions,
predictions and theories have proven untrue or just haven’t become reality yet. So what
see Kurzweil, Raymond (2005), The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. pp. 24ff and1
Diamandis, Peter and Kotler, Steven (2012), Abundance - The Future Is Better Than You Think. New York:
Free Press. pp. 51-59
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makes these new utopian ideas different, especially in regards to their seemingly influential
role in a region that leads in innovative thinking and doing?
This seminar paper is examining the development and role of technological utopian
ideologies in the Silicon Valley region. In the first chapter, a brief look at the history of
utopias and the term itself gives a basic overview of what utopianism really is. In addition,
a more comprehensive analysis of the principles of technological utopianism is outlined.
The second chapter then focuses on such technological utopian thinking in Silicon Valley.
A clear definition of the region and a look at its history is followed by an extensive
analysis of techno-utopian ideologies in the Valley. In this subchapter, the seminar paper
ultimately examines three techno-utopian ideologies and the respective roles they had or
still have. A conclusion then tries to compare this new techno-utopianism with traditional
utopianism and further looks at the role these optimistic visions of the future might have.
1. Defining Technological Utopianism
This chapter is split up into two parts: First, the history of utopias in general is looked at in
order to give a quick overview of where utopianism comes from and why people strive to
imagine utopias. Afterwards, a more comprehensive analysis of a specific form of
utopianism, technological utopianism, tries to clarify the terms and meanings behind it.
This first section shall provide a brief and basic overview of the paper’s topics, before
chapter two goes into more detail regarding technological utopianism in Silicon Valley.
1.1. History of Utopias
„When we speak of “utopianism” we can speak of a persistent tradition of thought about
the perfect society, in which perfection is defined as harmony. The harmony is of each man
with himself and of each man with all others.“2
Although the origin of utopian thinking is often attributed specifically to Sir Thomas
More’s famous „Utopia“ from the year 1516, prefigurements of utopianism can already be
found in the mythology of the Classical Age (e.g. in many stories of the Golden Age) as
Kateb, George (1968), Utopianism. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.2
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3045001295.html [22.08.15]
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well as in ancient Greek philosophy. Glaucon, Plato’s older brother, for example, called
Socrates’ description of the felicities of a pre-civilized society in Plato’s utopian
„Republic“ a city of pigs. And even though More’s „Utopia“ defined a new literary genre,
of which Campanella, Francis Bacon, Morelly, William Morris and H. G. Wells among
others are part of, utopian thinking is also evident in the writings of renowned thinkers of
the Age of Enlightenment such as Hegel, Rousseau, Turgot, Condorcet and later also all
over Marx’ ideas.3
The large variety of utopian literature and thought can be explained by the fact that the
conditions of the respective present world, from which an utopian idea is devised of, are
obviously constantly changing. Hence, as the level of technology, the state of scientific
knowledge, the society, politics and economy are changing, so is the utopian thought. That
is why utopian ideas span from mythologies derived from biblical stories, to dreams of
alternative unreachable civilizations, to criticism of and deviation-demands from religious
beliefs, to demands for revolution and real world, earth-based utopias.
In this regard, there are three benefits that come with an engagement with utopianism:
Utopianism reveals and criticizes the deficiencies of the real world and calls for a change.
Utopianism enriches the sense of human possibility by giving perspective through contrast.
And utopianism literature improves our understanding of the respective present social
relations and issues in a similar way as social sciences does.4
The upcoming chapter takes a deeper look at one form of utopianism, the so-called
technological utopianism, and tries to explore its distinctive characteristics and principles.
1.2. Principles of Technological Utopianism
As seen in the chapter above, one can find differences between the utopias found in the
literature, while the respective present status quo seems to always define the main factors
on which the utopia focuses on. This holds true, even when the utopia presented
encompasses a whole range of different aspects and illustrates a completely alternative or
future picture of not just one aspect, but an entire world. Although, classifying such utopias
see ibid.3
see ibid.4
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to a distinct form of utopianism, such as technological utopianism, obviously proves to be
more difficult in such cases.
Nonetheless, looking at the literature one can see that at times in which science and
technology has not played such a big part or was not even fully developed yet, utopias are
often based on myths, miracles or are set far apart from the „real“ world (see for instance
the Golden Age or More’s Utopia). It wasn’t until the Age of Enlightenment and the
beginning of modern science in the 17th century that the literature of utopias increasingly
integrated the potentials of scientific and technological progress as well as predictions of it.
Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (1627), for example, is seen as „[…] one of the most
optimistic imaginative projections of beneficial impacts that science and technology might
have on humanity.“ This correlation between the state of the respective present world or5
reality and the utopian ideas that are devised from it is crucial when one wants to analyze
the technological utopianism of our age [see Chapter 2.2.].
It can be said, that all techno-utopians have a relatively strong belief in technology in
common, as the means of achieving a perfect, harmonious society in the future. According
to many of these utopians, such a society would not only be the result of the progress of
technology, but in addition be modeled on technology in its institutions, values and
culture. Such thinking can be found, for example, in the early praising of the Internet in6
the mid-1990s by so-called cyber-utopians. The Internet - as they proclaimed - „[…]7
would level social hierarchies, distribute and personalize work, and dematerialize
Booker, M. K. (1994). The dystopian impulse in modern literature: Fiction as social criticism.5
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
see Jenkins, Henry (no date), Technological Utopianism. Media in Transition Project - Science Fiction.6
Massachusetts Institut of Technology. http://web.mit.edu/m-i-t/science_fiction/jenkins/jenkins_1.html
[22.08.15] and Segel, Howard P. (2005) Technological Utopianism in American Culture. New York: Syracuse
University Press. Twentieth Anniversary Edition. pp. 1ff
see Barlow, John P. (1996), A Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace. Electronic Frontier Foundation.7
https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html [22.08.15] and Silverman, Jacob (2015), Meet the
man whose utopian vision for the Internet conquered, and then warped, Silicon Valley. The Washington Post.
March 20th, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-one-mans-utopian-vision-for-the-internet-
conquered-and-then-badly-warped-silicon-valley/2015/03/20/7dbe39f8-cdab-11e4-
a2a7-9517a3a70506_story.html [22.08.15]
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communication […].“ It would „[…] embody new, egalitarian forms of political
organization […]“ and put „[…] an end to corporate power.“8
In his book Technology and the Human Condition philosopher Bernard Gendron defines
four principles or assumptions that are guiding the view and visions of all technological
utopians: 1. Technological growth will be sustained; 2. Technological growth will
eventually bring an end to economic scarcity; 3. The end of economic scarcity results in
the elimination of every major social evil.9
These four principles can be repeatedly found in modern utopian literature and thinking,
especially in the technological utopianism analyzed in the upcoming chapters. The mere
fact, that Gendron distilled these principles already in 1977 in his study of utopian thinkers
such as Buckminster Fuller, Arthur Clarke and Alvin Toffler, might to some extent already
diminish or viewed from another perspective, emphasize the claims of today’s
technological utopians. Nonetheless, a more comprehensive analysis of 21st century10
technological utopian views should shine more light on the reasons and validity of such
thinking.
2. Technological Utopianism in Silicon Valley
When exploring ideas of technological utopianism specifically in the region of the Silicon
Valley, an analysis of the literature reveals three ideologies: the Californian Ideology,
Cyber-Liberterianism and Singularitarianism. Although all of these cannot solely traced
back to what is being described as the geographic region of the Silicon Valley, prominent
figures of these ideologies have been and are still playing a relatively important role in the
Valley’s success. This correlation between utopian thinking regarding technological
progress and the location of Silicon Valley can mainly be explained by the leading role the
Turner, Fred (2004), How Digital Technology Met Utopian Ideology: Revisiting the First Hackers'8
Conference. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, New
Orleans Sheraton, New Orleans, LA. http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p112996_index.html [22.08.15] p. 1
see Gendron, Bernard (1977), Technology and the Human Condition. St. Martin’s Press9
see Selk, Eugene E. (1977) Review: Technology and the Human Condition by Bernard Gendron. in10
Technology and Culture. Vol. 18, No. 3. John Hopkins University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3103913
[22.08.15] pp. 518-520
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Valley has had in recent decades in terms of technological innovation and breakthroughs,
especially considering digitalization.
The next chapter is trying to give a brief overview of how the Silicon Valley has come to
be the innovation hub we know it for, and look at important factors that have shaped its
success. Thereafter, we will look at ideas of technological utopianism that have sprung out
of the Valley, analyze the underlying assumptions of these utopias and examine possible
implications such techno-utopian thinking might have.
2.1. The History of the Silicon Valley
„In truth, you can look at any industry that has yet to be optimized by tech and bet that in
the not so distant future it will experience a revolution in part due to innovations from
Silicon Valley.“11
The Silicon Valley, a region located between Stanford and San Jose just 30 miles south of
San Francisco, is known worldwide as a vibrant center of numerous, widely successful
technology corporations and an ever-growing population of start-up companies. The
Silicon Valley is not for nothing referred to as „[…] the world’s […] high-tech
heartland“ , the „[…] seedbed of innovation […]“ , or „[…] the Holy Grail of economic12 13
development“ .14
The term „Silicon Valley“ itself can be traced back to entrepreneur Ralph Vaerst and his
friend and journalist Don Hoefler. In 1971, Hoefler was trying to find a suitable name for
his article series about the emerging semiconductor industry he was writing for the
magazine Electronic News. His friend and valley entrepreneur Vaerst suggested „Silicon
Valley“ and Hoefler chose to name his article series „Silicon Valley USA“. However, the
story of Silicon Valley and the foundations of its ongoing success, go back over a century.
Haroun, Chris (2014), A Brief History of Silicon Valley, the Region that Revolutionizes How We Do11
Everything. Entrepreneur. December 8th, 2014. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240534 [22.08.15]
Markoff, John (2009), Searching for Silicon Valley. The New York Times. April 16th, 2009.12
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/travel/escapes/17Amer.html?_r=0 [22.08.15]
Castells, Manuel (2010), The Rise of the Network Society. Second Edition. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. p.13
61
Kenney, Martin (2000), Understanding Silicon Valley - The Anatomy of an Entrepreneurial Region.14
Stanford: Stanford University Press. p.15
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Evidence of a vibrant electronics industry in the San Francisco Bay area can be traced back
to the early days in the radio, television and military electronics industry. Already in the
beginning of the 20th century, there were graduates of the renowned Stanford University
that, with the help of the university’s administration and faculties as well as large amounts
of military funding during World War I and II, were founding their own companies in the
fields of radio, wireless voice and telegraph communication, and later television. In the15
1930s, the further development of Silicon Valley’s role as the world’s tech hub was driven
by a man called Frederick Terman. Terman, as dean of Stanford University’s Department
of Electrical Engineering, was determined to keep up the aforementioned regional
developments by creating an industry close by, so his students would not have to leave the
valley to work in the electronics industry, which at the time was primarily based on the
East Coast. The first students that followed Terman’s idea were William Hewlett and David
Packard, who - with Terman’s guidance - founded the renowned Hewlett-Packard company
- one of today’s largest information technology companies. Another important boost to16
Silicon Valley’s success story was when William Shockley, the inventor of the transistor
and Nobel Prize laureate, moved to Palo Alto in 1955 to live closer to his mother and
eventually to start his own company, Shockley Transistor Corporation. After recruiting
eight young promising engineers, the company quickly fell apart due to Shockley’s
authoritarianism and stubbornness. However, as all eight wanted to work on silicon as the
most promising route to the larger integration of transistors - in opposition to Shockley’s
ideas -, they created their own company together with the help of Fairchild Cameras, which
was named Fairchild Semiconductors. Here, new inventions like the integrated circuit
followed that enabled more and more subsequent business opportunities. Thus in 1963, the
so-called Fairchild Eight as well as their new employees - the Fairchildren - split up to
start their own firms (among others Intel and AMD). Looking back, about one-half of the
85 largest American semiconductor firms can be traced back to this spin-off from Fairchild
Semiconductors. The building blocks that have been critical to the success story of these17
see ibid. pp. 15-4715
see Tajnai, Caroline (1985), Fred Terman, the Father of Silicon Valley. NetValley. Silicon Valley History.16
http://www.netvalley.com/silicon_valley/Fred_Terman_Father_of_Silicon_Valley.html [22.08.15]
see Castells (2010), The Rise of the Network Society. p.61-68 and Carpien, Cindy et al. (2012), The Birth17
of Silicon Valley. NPR. April 4th, 2012. http://www.npr.org/2012/03/26/149404846/the-birth-of-silicon-
valley [29.08.15]
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companies and of the region in general since its early days - local venture capital, close
cooperation between universities and the local industry, a product mix focusing on
electronic components and advanced communications, as well as an awareness of the
region as existing outside of large, bureaucratic firms - are still its propellent backbone
today.18
The Silicon Valley, besides being the home to numerous innovations, highly successful
companies and huge amounts of venture capital, is nowadays considered to be the best
place to start a company worldwide. And the companies born in the Valley are disrupting19
industries on a global scale: from AirBnB transforming the hospitality industry, to Uber
transforming the transportation industry and Twitter transforming the media industry - just
to name a few.
The next chapter of this paper is examining how ideologies that are related to technological
utopianism have played a role in the young phase of the region’s development and how
they are present today. Furthermore, the chapter tries to identify underlying assumptions of
these utopias and possible implications that come with such techno-utopian thinking.
2.2. From Californian Ideology to Singulariatarianism
„An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential
[…]. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more
like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate). […] Within a few decades, machine
intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity — technological
change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The
implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal
see Kenney (2000), Understanding Silicon Valley. p.16 and Haroun, Chris (2014), A Brief History of18
Silicon Valley, the Region That Revolutionizes How We Do Everything. Entrepreneur. December 8th, 2014.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240534 [29.08.15]
see Startup Compass (2015), 2015 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking. Startup Compass Inc. http://19
blog.startupcompass.co/ [29.08.15] and Joint Venture Silicon Valley (2014), 2014 Silicon Valley Index.
https://www.siliconvalleycf.org/sites/default/files/publications/2014-silicon-valley-index.pdf [29.08.15] and
Gromov, Gregory (…), Silicon Valley - History & Future. NetValley. http://www.netvalley.com/
silicon_valley_history.html [29.05.15]
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software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the
universe at the speed of light.“20
The roots of techno-utopian thinking in the Silicon Valley area can be traced back to the
early hippie movement in the 1960s and 70s and to influential intellectuals such as
philosopher Marshall McLuhan and novelist Ernest Callenbach. The visions of the hippie
radicals of the San Francisco Bay Area were highly influential to the political and cultural
style of new left and green movements across the world. This counter-culture dreamt of
pacifism, the end of racism and capitalism, true social justice and democracy, as well as
collectivism and sustainability. However, as the IT economy of the Valley began to grow
sociologists Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron claim to have noticed the emergence of
a new kind of hippie movement. While some hippies more or less rejected scientific
progress and focused solely on the returning to nature, others in the Bay Area increasingly
believed that technological advances would turn their visions into reality. As a reflection of
the ongoing developments* in California, Barbrook and Cameron coined the term
Californian Ideology which represents „[…] a bizarre mish-mash of hippie anarchism and
economic liberalism beefed up with lots of technological determinism.“ According to the21
two sociologists, „these technophiliacs thought that the convergence of media, computing
and telecommunications would inevitably create the electronic agora - a virtual place
where everyone would be able to express their opinions without fear of censorship.“22
Barbrook and Cameron of course had to accept lots of criticism regarding their
characterization of Californian utopianism, which is also the only paper on this topic.23
Later the term Californian Ideology and the ideas behind it, were more or less replaced by
Cyber-Utopianism or Cyber-Libertarianism. These two terms are more related to the actual
Kurzweil, Ray (2001), The Law of Accelerating Returns. Kurzweil Artificial Intelligence - Essays. March20
7th, 2001. http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns [30.08.15]
* public subsidies spur projects and result in promising new technologies, IT startups are founded and on the
other hand cultural bohemianism, the hippie movement and DIY culture (around universities, rural
communities or artists) grow in importance
Barbrook, Richard and Cameron, Andy (1995), The Californian Ideology. The Hypermedia Research21
Center. University of Westminster. http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/theory-californianideology.html [30.08.15]
ibid.22
see Rossetto, Louis (1998), Rebuttal of the Californian Ideology. ALAMUT. http://www.alamut.com/subj/23
ideologies/pessimism/califIdeo_II.html [30.08.15]
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creation and evolution of the internet - the cyber world. Such cyper-utopian thinking can be
evidenced in the early works of Douglas Rushkoff, Terence McKenna and Kevin Kelly in
the 1990s and in ideas of the pioneers of cyberspace such as the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (e.g. John Barlow, Mitchell Kapor). The cyber-utopians were convinced that
the internet, which at the time looked much different to today’s state of being, would boost
democracy, favor the oppressed and foster communication, collaboration, sharing and
community. They all in all attributed lots of power to technology and saw technology and
scientific progress as the leading tools for change and prosperity. One of the most24
influential publications of the cyber-utopian era was the Wired magazine. Critiques such as
Barbrook and Cameron see the Wired of the 1990s as the culmination and leading advocate
of Californian Ideology and Cyber-Utopianism. One generic Wired article by Mitchell
Kapor, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, on the future of the internet from
1993 argues that: „In fact, life in cyberspace seems to be shaping up exactly like Thomas
Jefferson would have wanted: founded on the primacy of individual liberty and a
commitment to pluralism, diversity, and community.“ And even though this article also25
mentions doubts about the realization of these Jefferson principles, it concludes by saying
that the true promise of the internet was the promotion of „[…] openness, freedom, and
diversity […].“ The ideas the cyber-utopians had, however weren't as comprehensive as26
technological utopias traditionally have been and also not as ideological and profound as
the Californian Ideology can be characterized. Nonetheless, while the status quo has
always changed, all ideas encompass the technological utopian principles Bernard Gendron
analyzed in his 1977 study (as seen above in Chapter 1.2.). This is also the case for a rather
new utopian idea, the Technological Singularity.
The Technological Singularity is the theory that technological progress will lead to „[…] a
future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so
see Morozov, Evgeny (2011), The Net Delusion - The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. New York: Public24
Affairs. p. xiiif
Kapor, Mitchell (1993), Where is the Digital Highway Really Heading? The Case for A Jeffersonian25
Information Policy. Wired Magazine. Issue 1.03, Jul/Aug 1993. http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/1.03/
kapor.on.nii.html [30.08.15]
ibid.26
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deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.“ Ray Kurzweil, probably the most27
prominent thinker behind this idea, predicts this period to happen approximately in the year
2045. This prediction is derived from his statistical analysis and what he calls the Law of
Accelerating Returns, a theory which claims that the rate of change in a variety of
evolutionary systems tends to increase exponentially. Thus, Kurzweil says the „[…]
exponential growth in the power and price-performance of information-based technologies
is not limited to computers but is true for essentially all information technologies.“ His28
definition of information technologies includes an amplitude of phenomena and will, due
to digitalization, according to his views „[…] ultimately include the full range of economic
activity and cultural endeavor.“29
While the idea behind the Technological Singularity stems back to the early beginnings and
successes in artificial intelligence, the term itself was coined by Vernor Vinge. In 1993,
computer scientist and science-fiction writer Vinge defined it as a moment when humans
create smarter-than-human machines that will cause such rapid change that the human era
will end. The difference between what Vinge and Kurzweil are saying and what early AI-30
scientists would call the intelligence explosion theory, is Kuzweil’s and partly also Vinge’s
highly optimistic take on it. For them and many other proponents, the Singularity means31
a transhumanist voyage to an utopia where humans become immortal cyborgs and where
everything becomes abundant. It is a form of self-guided evolution of the homo sapiens
that will open completely new possibilities for humanity.32
These utopian ideas behind the so-called Singularitarianism are of such importance in that
manner, as they seem to shape to some extent the imaginations and visions of the Silicon
Kurzweil, Raymond (2005), The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. p. 2427
ibid. p. 54 and pp. 44-5528
ibid. pp. 54f29
see Vinge, Vernor (1993), The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era.30
https://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/misc/singularity.html [30.08.15]
see Markoff, John (2009), Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man. The New York Times. July 25th,31
2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/science/26robot.html [30.08.15]
see Kurzweil (2005), The Singularity Is Near. pp. 24ff and Diamandis and Kotler (2012), Abundance - The32
Future Is Better Than You Think. pp. 51-59 and Grossman, Lev (2011), 2045: The Year Man Becomes
Immortal. Time Magazine. February 10th, 2011. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/
0,9171,2048299,00.html [30.08.15]
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Valley. Many entrepreneurs, investors and intellectuals in the Silicon Valley sympathize
with the Singularity theory and Kurzweil’s predictions. Kurzweil himself holds 19
honorary degrees, was awarded the National Medal of Technology by former U.S.
president Bill Clinton, is furthermore endorsed by well-known people such as Bill Gates,
and currently even resides as Director of Engineering at Google. In 2008, together with
other Singularity-enthusiasts and funding from Google, Nokia, Autodesk, IDEO and
LinkedIn among others, Kurzweil founded the so-called Singularity University, based at
the NASA Ames Research Park in Silicon Valley. This university offers various programs
for students, entrepreneurs and executives to learn and study what Kurzweil and his
colleagues call exponential technologies. The whole program is based on the ideas and
theories behind the Singularity and strives to „[…] educate, inspire and empower leaders to
apply exponential technologies to address humanity’s great challenges.“ The young33
university has managed to built quite a big network of universities, government agencies,
entrepreneurs, corporations, business leaders, non-profits, innovators and well-known
scientists. In addition, there is also the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI),34
formerly known as Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, based in San Francisco.
It counts among its advisers one of the most renowned investors in the Valley, Peter Thiel,
as well as Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom. MIRI also believes in the Singularity35
theory and with its work, tries „[…] to ensure that the creation of smarter-than-human
intelligence has a positive impact.“36
Such a network of universities, corporations, entrepreneurs and scientists might seem very
impressive, one has to mention though that it is unclear how these affiliates see the
Singularity theory as there is also much room for diverse opinions. One could suspect that
Anonymous (2015), What Is Singularity University? Singularity University.33
http://singularityu.org/ [31.08.15]
see Anonymous (2014), Ashoka University, Singularity University sign MoU to foster innovation in India.34
India Education Review. December 30th, 2014. http://www.indiaeducationreview.com/news/ashoka-
university-singularity-university-sign-mou-foster-innovation-india/18521 [31.08.15] and Hagel III, John et
al. (2013), When the Professor works at Google. Fortune Magazine. September 16th, 2013. http://
fortune.com/2013/09/16/when-the-professor-works-at-google/ [31.08.15] and Unicefstories (2014), UNICEF
and Singularity University innovate together as a force for change. UNICEF - Stories of innovation. http://
www.unicefstories.org/2014/07/11/unicef-and-singularity-university-innovate-together-as-a-force-for-change/
[31.08.15]
see Grossman (2011), 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal. Time Magazine.35
Anonymous (2015), Aligning advanced AI with human interests. MIRI - Machine Intelligence Research36
Institute. https://intelligence.org/research/ [31.08.15]
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many might just be attracted by the network and the publicity an affiliation with this theory
and the people behind it might provide. Furthermore, the Technological Singularity might
not even be an utopia, at least in its original sense. Already the name Singularity - a
physics term which describes the breakdown of the predictive ability of modern physics,
which for example occurs inside a black hole - illustrates that it is actually a theory that
only claims to describe the road to a future event or just technological change in general.
What might occur after such an event or at the time of a highly accelerated pace of change
is impossible to predict or imagine. This is also why many believe Singularitarianism to be
more of a religion or a belief than an actual technological utopia or theory. Nonetheless,37
as explained above, it integrates the same principles as other technological utopias have
and many of the Singularity believers or proponents, claim that the event will eventually
lead to utopian conditions, such as eradicating disease, immortality and abundance.
Conclusion
This seminar paper examined the history and status quo of technological utopianism in
Silicon Valley. At first, a brief overview of the history of utopias illustrated that the
respective present state of the world as well as the respective existing developments have
always been shaping the ideas and the focus of the utopias imagined. A look at
technological utopianism in particular showed however, that there are certain principles
most techno-utopians adhere to. After giving an outline of the foundation and development
of the Silicon Valley and identifying influential factors of its success, the second part of the
paper analyzed technological utopian ideologies of the region itself. The analysis reveals
that utopias have been common in the Valley since the early days of the IT industry.
However, what was originally a mix between anti-authoritarian, counterculture and
technological determinism beliefs, seems nowadays, with ideas such as the Technological
Singularity, to focus increasingly on technology and transhumanist ideologies only. The
chapter concludes that it is difficult to compare such ideas with traditional utopias as they
are a sort of hybrid of various scientific theories, some might say religious-like beliefs, and
plain entrepreneurial best practices.
see Grossman (2011), 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal. Time Magazine.37
14

16.
While this seminar paper gives a clear overview of technological utopianism in Silicon
Valley, it only partly answers its initially posed question. The latter is the case, because
finding out and analyzing the pictures of the future, people in Silicon Valley have, turns out
to be a rather difficult task. These individuals usually use their visions of the future to
create new businesses and are therefore reluctant to make them public. Hence, this paper is
a rather generic look at utopian views in this vibrant region, a more thorough analysis
would require more time and resources.
It seems however that utopian-like thinking is a very attractive and enabling competency
when building businesses or when seeking to find new ideas and innovations. As Kurzweil
says: „being an entrepreneur, you have to be optimistic, because if you knew all the
obstacles you would face, you would never start anything.“ A further analysis of this38
seemingly very important nexus between utopian-thinking and entrepreneurialism would
likely prove to be an interesting endeavor. Furthermore, even if the Cyber-Utopians or
Singularitarians are completely wrong about the future, they still do something everyone
should learn a thing or two from: They are taking the future seriously, looking at the big
picture and taking a long view instead of pressing for short-term returns, and fast money, a
practice that has long been the norm particularly in the business culture. 39
Walsh, Brian (2014), Google Engineer Ray Kurzweil Thinks We’ll Cheat Death In This Lifetime. Here’s38
Why. Prevention. May 13th, 2014. http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/why-ray-kurzweil-
thinks-well-cheat-death-lifetime [31.08.15]
see Grossman (2011), 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal. Time Magazine.39
15

17.
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