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The behavior of these companies and the people who run them is often hypocritical, greedy, and status-obsessed. But underlying these venalities is something more dangerous, a clear and coherent ideology that is seldom called out for what it is: [authoritarian technocracy](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/). As the most powerful companies in Silicon Valley have matured, this ideology has only grown stronger, more self-righteous, more delusional, and—in the face of rising criticism—more aggrieved.
Gift Article: The Rise of Techno-Authoritarianism
Adrienne LaFrance
The accelerated need for growth has made our economic lives more precarious, leading to the drive to brand and commodify our identities, to optimize our selves, our bodies, and our kids.
The idea of a robot uprising has captured our imagination for over a century. The term *robot* comes from a 1920 Czech play called *Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti*, in which synthetic life-forms unhappy with their working conditions organize and revolt, leading to the extinction of humanity. Before their demise, the human characters wonder whether it would have been better to ensure that the robots could not speak a universal language, whether they should have destroyed the Tower of Babel and prevented their children from unseating humanity from its heavenly kingdom.
Emily F. Gorcenski
Norman Packard
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