So author Noam Cohen is coming out with a book. He calls the book “The Know-It-Alls: The Rise of Silicon Valley as a Political Powerhouse and Social Wrecking Ball”. It is a scathing book about IT support culture in Silicon Valley. Have we sold our soul to Silicon Valley?
So the first problem Cohen has is with the tech monopolies. But I like to call them the Big 5. They are Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft. However, at first, they were all idealist companies. Today, they exploit their huge, huge, customer base for profit just because they can. Or at least, that the picture Cohen paints.
Then there is the progress their technology gives us. Maybe that’s why nobody wants to call out Silicon Valley on their sins. Nonetheless, Cohen has us asking, “Is it worth it?”. Is it worth them interfering with elections? Or is it worth them sending jobs overseas, or even replacing jobs with robots? Or how about the way they swallow up companies, creating monopolies, and leading to huge wealth inequality. Okay, this is mostly how I feel, but Cohen tackles these issues. Have we sold our soul to Silicon Valley? And if we have, can we do anything about it?
Not only does Cohen says ‘yes’, but he offers suggestions. He calls for anti-trust action to stop, or at the very least, curb these potential monopolies. Cohen worries that if only a handful of men control the way we buy, sell, eat, communicate, or do anything, that just spells trouble. And quite frankly, that worries me as well. This is what I mean by selling our soul. Because if we let a handful of men like Bezos, Zuckerburg, Cook,?Pichai, and Ballmer control our lives like this, then what now? And what if we decide to speak out? Will they retaliate by cutting us off and suspending our service? This may sound like a movie, but this is not entertainment. This is our reality. But I’m just a little computer repair blogger. What do I know?