Revenge of the Nerds

The tech boom of the past quarter century has been one of the greatest wealth creation events in human history. Our species’ addiction to bright lights, blather, and self-gratification, powered by Moore’s Law and the breakneck development of technology, has generated trillions of dollars—the bulk of which have gone to a few dead-eyed men with a penchant for three-quarter zips. Today, the concentration of wealth in the hands of the wealthiest Americans far exceeds that of the Gilded Age and only continues to grow. The likes of Elon Musk now command fortunes that outpace the gross domestic products of entire nations. At the same time, all this vaunted technological “progress” and profit have coincided with, if not driven, extreme political polarization and a catastrophic breakdown in the social contract.