SILICON VALLEY IS THE NEW ROME. AS IN THE TIME OF CAESAR, the world is grappling with an advanced city-state dominating much of the planet, injecting its technology and ethos everywhere it lands and funneling enormous wealth back home.
Peter Thiel—tech investor, avowed monopolist, proponent of skipping college—has many of us wringing our hands about Silicon Valley’s swelling wealth and influence. Thiel spent about $10 million to secretly fund an ex-wrestler’s lawsuit against a salacious news-gossip website, allegedly as revenge, and that revelation set off panic about the ability of Silicon Valley and its billionaires to impose their will.
Thiel’s is just one of many stories with a similar theme. Facebook got accused of muting conservative news on the site, stirring still more worries about media control and censorship. Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made Thiel look like a cheapskate when he paid $30 million to buy and tear down four homes around his residence, just so nobody can see into his windows. Look around the U.S and you find that Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff wielded the power to reverse an Indiana law that might have discriminated against the LGBT community, by threatening to abandon the state. The Donald Trump phenomenon has been largely fueled by voters angry that their jobs are getting reamed by technology.