Dave Karpf, a political communication scholar, writes critical essays on tech billionaires, Silicon Valley ideology, and tech regulation.
Commenters link his essays as a good takedown of tech billionaires and of longtermism.
Brian Chau, the creator of Effort News, is a "Founding Faculty" member (https://www.fromthenew.world/about) of Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School, and has lived in its Singapore-based compound.
Srinivasan's Network School is part of his long-term goal of creating "Network States" -- essentially an aspiration of corporate feudalism (https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/the-tech-barons-have-a-blueprint)
See: https://newrepublic.com/article/180487/balaji-srinivasan-network-state-plutocrat
>“What I’m really calling for is something like tech Zionism,” he said, after comparing his movement to those started by the biblical Abraham, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism), Theodor Herzl (“spiritual father” of the state of Israel), and Lee Kuan Yew (former authoritarian ruler of Singapore). Balaji then revealed his shocking ideas for a tech-governed city where citizens loyal to tech companies would form a new political tribe clad in gray t-shirts. “And if you see another Gray on the street … you do the nod,” he said, during a four-hour talk on the Moment of Zen podcast. “You’re a fellow Gray.”
This is a good takedown I read [1] My own take: Andreesen doesn't get that politics/law/society also has "software", i.e. rules that advance and get complex as civilization gets complex. In a sense there is human/social "technology" as well that has to evolve and advance as well. Hard Tech needs Soft Tech, they are not "enemies".
[1] https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/why-cant-our-tech-billionaires-learn
Interesting that the Long Now foundation is apparently separate from the EA "Longtermism" movement (though both share the same cultish vibes IMO)
https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/against-jackpot-longtermism
Also this one https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/why-cant-our-tech-billionaires-learn