After the Gold Rush—Neil Young
#365Songs: May 25th
Neil Young predicted modern day tech almost fifty years ago. Plunge every resource for a dollar, then use the profits to flee the scene. All in the name of advancement! Of exploration! Another way of life on a planet far far away! A lovely thought, until you read the fine print: only white narcissist billionaires allowed. Musk, Bezos, Branson, Zuckerberg, Paul Allen. Perhaps the new generation of cult-leader saviors like Sam Altman will join the crew just as soon as he rations out our lifetime supply of compute.
San Francisco has always been a boom or bust town — from gold to silicon, clicks and likes to generative AI models. It’s always something with these guys, and it’s always guys — with the exception of Elizabeth Holmes, who’s in prison, and Sheryl Sandberg, who should be too.
Over the past 25 years, flocks of soon-to-be millionaires and billionaires fled their Northeast, Southeast, and Midwestern towns with gold panning kits. The companies competed for talent by offering richer perks, a life at work model that meant those who moved here didn’t give back to the local economy what they took from it. Restaurants struggled, bars closed, music venues half full, and as the IPOs hit and the salaries rose, it became impossible for the city’s most interesting people to rent or buy homes. In Chicago, an artist had to bartend for rent. In San Francisco, an artist had to chase a six figure tech salary just to get by.
Well, I dreamed I saw the knights in armor coming
Sayin’ something about a queen
There were peasants singin’ and drummers drumming
And the archer split the tree
There was a fanfare blowin’ to the sun
That was floating on the breeze
I spent the first 30 years of my life dreaming of San Francisco. I finally came here for the lifestyle, the natural beauty, the progressive non-conformity, to be amongst weirdos, punks, freaks, artists, activists. But shortly after I got here, I landed my first tech job. And then my second tech job. For years, it’s how I survived here, how I afforded to be here at all. Tech is like a casino, an addiction: stay for a year and you’ll get stock, stay for four years and that stock might be worth something. Work harder for more stock, but we’re changing the world, too, that endless stream of flawlessly crafted cult-worthy messaging that fuels purpose — and even gaslights you into believing it’s true, that you are in fact changing the world.
And that’s the thing. At most successful tech companies, you are changing the world. Just not in the way you want to believe. I challenge you to name your favorite tech company: have they done more damage than good? For every innovation there’s seemingly an unintended consequence, an audience exploited, an earth plunged of its resources.
Somehow, we still haven’t learned. Count how many times in one day you open a website and see the word “AI” somewhere on that page. But at what or whose expense? Aside from the very clear copyright infringements, the consolidation and elimination of jobs, and the rather sketchy leaders atop these companies, there’s also the climate question. According to the World Economic Forum, “The energy required to run AI tasks is already accelerating with an annual growth rate between 26% and 36%. This means by 2028, AI could be using more power than the entire country of Iceland used in 2021.” And in 2022, “Google’s data centers consumed about 5 billion gallons (nearly 20 billion liters) of fresh water for cooling. They used 20 percent more water in 2022 than they did in 2021, and Microsoft’s water use rose by 34 percent in the same period.’
That doesn’t sound great for an Earth already in crisis, does it?
I was lyin’ in a burned-out basement
With a full moon in my eyes
I was hopin’ for replacement
When the sun burst through the sky
There was a band playin’ in my head
And I felt like getting high
I was thinkin’ about what a friend had said
I was hopin’ it was a lie
In full disclosure, I stayed in tech long enough to stop worrying about my next rent payment, but not long enough to flee the planet on a shuttle. Not even close. Anytime I discovered a company was up to no good, I left, and when a poor decision was being discussed, I spoke up. Perhaps I sold my soul for a bit longer than I’m proud of, but I never sacrificed my integrity, never chased money over the right message. And along the way, I did learn a thing or two about what’s really happening in most of these companies.
It’s much darker now than even a decade ago. We’ve seen most of tech for what it is, and it’s left us far worse off than we were before the Internet. And it’s getting worse and worse by the year, leaving entire industries in crisis — film, music, publishing, journalism. Our socio-political discourse is hateful, fueled by misinformation, and our collective mental health is dire. Now, the venture capital money has shifted from social media networks and marketplaces to AI, and politicians are so baffled or stuffing their back pockets with campaign dollars to notice the warning signs.
A new Gold Rush is here, and the already-rich are getting richer. They know what they’re doing, what they’re taking, what damage will be done, and as a result they’re plotting their escape. When the floods come and the robots take over, the white men who broke everything will be millions of miles away. Where will we be, what will we have left?
Well, I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships lying
In the yellow haze of the sun
There were children crying and colors flying
All around the chosen ones
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun
Flyin’ mother nature’s silver seed
To a new home in the sun
Flyin’ mother nature’s silver seed
To a new home
~
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