California ideology
The expression Californian ideology critically describes the belief in the emancipatory possibilities of the information society and the new technologies , as prototypically emerged in California in the 1990s. It goes back to the two British social scientists Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron from the University of Westminster . In their article The Californian Ideology , first published in 1995, they describe how this “new belief” developed from the “fusion of the cultural bohemian of San Francisco ” with the “ high-tech industries of Silicon Valley ”.
The development of part of the hippie movement was of crucial importance . This believed, influenced u. a. from Marshall McLuhan's theories that " technological progress would inevitably make their liberal principles a social fact". The developing computer and telecommunications technology seemed to give rise to an “electronic agora ” on which everyone could express their opinions without fear of censorship. The new technologies would break the power of big corporations and governments and increase the personal freedom of individuals.
Barbrook and Cameron criticize that the high-tech elite that has emerged is unable to take clear political positions. They believed that the "electronic marketplace" could "solve America's social and economic problems without sacrifice on their side."
Further elements of this view:
- The idea of Technological Singularity , advocated by Ray Kurzweil , when civilization reaches a new level through really thinking computers.
- Politicians have not understood the new possibilities of technical progress and are holding back.
- Peter Thiel , a representative of libertarianism , sees "the world of bits" as largely free of restrictive rules, while "the world of atoms" is regulated.
- The Burning Man festival as a symbol of these attitudes, with "... a bohemian idealism ... which the tech elite like to embrace ... (and) the cultural infrastructure that is used to develop business models.
Web links
- Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron: THE CALIFORNIAN IDEOLOGY (1995)
- Telepolis : The Californian Ideology . February 5, 1997, accessed February 1, 2020.
literature
- Thomas Schulz: What Google really wants - How the world's most influential corporation is changing our future , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-421-04710-6 .