What is missing from The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

We can create an environment with competition, evolution and life, but without the parasites

Last week, on October 16th, Andreessen Horowitz published The Techno-Optimist Manifesto. The manifesto received a largely negative to mixed reception. In a nutshell, the manifesto argues that what we need to build a better future is growth, technology and free market capitalism.

There are points in the manifesto that I am aligned with. But there are also some points I have a problem with.

The manifesto is right in saying that human civilisation is built on technology. Everything around us has been created by technology, from the device you use to read this post to our clothes, medicine, homes we live in and the food we eat. Technology and humanity are intertwined with each other. The nature of that relationship (whether it's symbiotic or parasitic) is up for debate, but we can’t discard all technology and “return to monkey”. Instead, we need more technology. We are dealing with massive challenges and technology, our ability to gain knowledge and apply it to solve problems, is our best tool to address them.

But not everything can be solved with technology. Some of the problems we are dealing with are systemic and no matter how much technology we throw at it, they won’t be solved. In some cases, throwing more technology at the problem can make it worse.

The Techno-Optimist Manifesto argues that the best way to organise humans and create a better future is with free market capitalism. That is a problematic take.

The manifesto is idealistic. It basically argues that if we put technology and free, capitalistic markets in place, then growth will happen and everyone will be rich and happily live in a world full of abundance. What the manifesto omits is how people exploited and still exploit the idea of free markets.

In free markets, the primary incentive is the pursuit of profit. This incentive promotes innovation, efficiency, improving quality and accessibility to goods and services. But the same incentive also promotes exploitation and short-term thinking. Under free market capitalism, if you have to choose between what is right and what is cheap, you are incentivised to choose what is cheap and not what is right. We know that fossil fuels are bad for the environment, but they are cheap. We know that highly processed foods are bad for our health, but they are cheap. We know what we need to do to make Earth a better place to live, but those things are not cheap. Those right choices, the choices that pay off in the longer term, might eventually come, but they are not incentivised by the current economic systems.

The manifesto also calls us to become Technological Supermen - beings elevated by technology and actively engaging with and advancing technology through education, hands-on experience, and collaboration. The manifesto sees technology not as a force that controls humans, but as a frontier to be explored and harnessed. Pursuing technology is an adventure and a challenge.

What Technological Supermen are lacking is empathy. I’m for us to grow beyond what we mean today by “human”, to upgrade, to expand and to see what are we capable of. But we shouldn't strive solely for physical or technological growth; we must also grow mentally and emotionally. That we are not only better, faster, stronger, but also smarter and empathetic. That we can better understand each other, understand different perspectives and choose paths that everyone aligns on.

This lack of empathy becomes clear when the manifesto introduces its enemies. The manifesto states that its enemies are not people, but bad ideas. Some of them, such as stagnation, corruption, blind deference to tradition or authoritarianism, I agree we should not follow. But the manifesto also lists “existential risk”, “sustainability”, “ESG”, “Sustainable Development Goals”, “social responsibility”, “stakeholder capitalism”, “Precautionary Principle”, “trust and safety”, “tech ethics”, “risk management”, “de-growth”, “the limits of growth” as its enemies.

I wonder if the authors of the manifesto asked themselves why people have those ideas that they labelled as “enemies”. Because if they did, they might discover that these ideas arose in response to the exploitation perpetuated by the ideals the manifesto champions. Some of those ideas are a response to companies that, driven only by profit and led by ruthless leaders, exploit their workers, customers, communities and the environment. Others are a response to what happens when a well-intentioned technology, instead of helping us become better, becomes a source of problems. Social media promised to connect everyone so that we could share our experiences and bring us together. Instead, it twisted into echo chambers amplifying hate and misinformation. Blockchain and crypto promised decentralised, inclusive and secure financial transactions and legal interactions between people. Instead, blockchain and crypto became infested with scammers. Now we are bringing human-level artificial intelligence into reality. It promises great things, as with every new technology, but we already see how people abuse it.

At the end of the manifesto, there is a quote from David Deutsch: “We have a duty to be optimistic. Because the future is open, not predetermined and therefore cannot just be accepted: we are all responsible for what it holds. Thus it is our duty to fight for a better world.”

We have to be active to create the future we want. We have to grow, both as individuals and as groups of all sizes, to both create those futures and to adapt to changing environments. That’s evolution and life. Once we stop growing, we stagnate and eventually die.

I am optimistic about the future, despite global events and personal challenges I'm facing. Because the future is open. The future is full of possibilities. The future is for us to create it. We have the power to choose what we want to create. I believe there is a path that leads to a future where humans of all kinds can flourish.

“We believe in competition, because we believe in evolution. We believe in evolution, because we believe in life,” the manifesto says. Evolution is capable of creating breathtaking forests and beautiful creatures living in those forests. But it also created parasites. What we, as humans, can create are gardens. We can create an environment with competition, evolution and life, but without the parasites.

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