Franklin Foer on how Silicon Valley is threatening our humanity
Fears about the “existential threat of big tech” usually focus on autonomous weapons and how to control superintelligence before it has the power to control us. That’s not so for Franklin Foer, The Atlantic staff writer and former New Republic editor-in-chief. His new book World Without Mind is out this week, and it’s about a different type of existential threat.
He thinks that the big tech companies — Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon — are “destroying the possibility of contemplation” and making us turn away from the intellectual work that, he says, makes us human.
The Verge spoke with Foer about fake news, why there’s too much attention on Silicon Valley libertarianism, and how food can serve as a model for a cultural revolution.
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