Back
The Techno-Optimist Manifesto | Andreessen Horowitz
webMarc Andreessen's influential manifesto arguing for unconstrained technological optimism, explicitly positioning itself against AI safety concerns and 'deceleration' movements, making it a key artifact representing the techno-accelerationist perspective that AI safety researchers must engage with.
Metadata
Importance: 52/100opinion piececommentary
Summary
Marc Andreessen's manifesto argues that technology is unambiguously beneficial and that pessimism about technological progress—including AI safety concerns—is misguided or dishonest. It frames growth and technological advancement as moral imperatives, dismissing critics as enemies of human flourishing. The piece represents a prominent counter-narrative to AI safety and governance efforts.
Key Points
- •Claims that fears about technology (job loss, inequality, existential risk) are lies propagated by those who want to hold back progress.
- •Argues that economic growth driven by technology is the foundation of all human well-being and that stagnation leads to collapse.
- •Positions techno-optimism as a moral stance against 'decelerationists' and AI safety advocates.
- •Invokes historical progress narratives to argue humanity should embrace rather than constrain technological development.
- •Represents a major ideological counterpoint to AI safety and governance movements, influential in Silicon Valley.
1 FactBase fact citing this source
| Entity | Property | Value | As Of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marc Andreessen | notable-publication | The Techno-Optimist Manifesto | Oct 2023 |
Cached Content Preview
HTTP 200Fetched Apr 7, 202642 KB
The Techno-Optimist Manifesto | Andreessen Horowitz
General
The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
Marc Andreessen
Posted
October 16, 2023
Subscribe
Share
Share
Email
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
Hacker News
WhatsApp
Flipboard
Reddit
The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
Table of Contents
Share
Share
Email
X
LinkedIn
Facebook
Hacker News
WhatsApp
Flipboard
Reddit
You live in a deranged age — more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.
Walker Percy
Our species is 300,000 years old. For the first 290,000 years, we were foragers, subsisting in a way that’s still observable among the Bushmen of the Kalahari and the Sentinelese of the Andaman Islands. Even after Homo Sapiens embraced agriculture, progress was painfully slow. A person born in Sumer in 4,000BC would find the resources, work, and technology available in England at the time of the Norman Conquest or in the Aztec Empire at the time of Columbus quite familiar. Then, beginning in the 18th Century, many people’s standard of living skyrocketed. What brought about this dramatic improvement, and why?
Marian Tupy
There’s a way to do it better. Find it.
Thomas Edison
Lies
We are being lied to.
We are told that technology takes our jobs, reduces our wages, increases inequality, threatens our health, ruins the environment, degrades our society, corrupts our children, impairs our humanity, threatens our future, and is ever on the verge of ruining everything.
We are told to be angry, bitter, and resentful about technology.
We are told to be pessimistic.
The myth of Prometheus – in various updated forms like Frankenstein, Oppenheimer, and Terminator – haunts our nightmares.
We are told to denounce our birthright – our intelligence, our control over nature, our ability to build a better world.
We are told to be miserable about the future.
Truth
Our civilization was built on technology.
Our civilization is built on technology.
Technology is the glory of human ambition and achievement, the spearhead of progress, and the realization of our potential.
For hundreds of years, we properly glorified this – until recently.
I am here to bring the good ne
... (truncated, 42 KB total)Resource ID:
kb-43fc0897f70869b3 | Stable ID: sid_tEOmPA6OTG