How Silicon Valley Monopolized Our Imagination

The past few months have seen a series of bold proclamations from the most powerful people in tech.

In September, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta had developed “the most advanced glasses the world had ever seen.” That same day, Open AI CEO Sam Altman predicted we could have artificial super intelligence within a couple of years. Elon Musk has said he’ll land rockets on Mars by 2026.

We appear to be living through the kinds of technological leaps we used to only dream about. But whose dreams were those, exactly?

In her latest book, Imagination: A Manifesto, Ruha Benjamin argues that our collective imagination has been monopolized by the Zuckerbergs and Musks of the world. But, she says, it doesn’t need to be that way.

Mentioned:

“Imagination: A Manifesto,” by Ruha Benjamin

Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), directed by Questlove

“The Black Woman: An Anthology,” by Toni Cade Bambara

“The New Artificial Intelligentsia,” by Ruha Benjamin

“Race After Technology,” by Ruha Benjamin

Breonna's Garden, with Ju'Niyah Palmer

“Viral Justice,” by Ruha Benjamin

The Parable Series, by Octavia Butler

Further Reading:

“AI could make health care fairer—by helping us believe what patients say,” by Karen Hao

“How an Attempt at Correcting Bias in Tech Goes Wrong,” by Sidney Fussell

“Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines,’” by Joy Buolamwini

“The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence,” by Timnit Gebru and Émile P. Torres