Last edited Sat Apr 18, 2026, 06:02 AM - Edit history (1)
I do not trust Sam Altman, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, Vinod Khosla, Marc Andreessen, Larry Ellison and the like.
Their analogues here in India are just as creepy. I was creeped out by the fact that this shady guy Alex Pentland of the Epstein associated MIT Media Lab was one of the architects of India’s Aadhar program.
I am not paranoid.
I would not be wary if dramatic accelerations of ubiquitous technology did not appear forced through with scant oversight.
I would prefer it if there was substantial input at the helm from the kinds of people I am inclined to trust. I would not trust the contemporary technology sector to seriously safeguard the essential principles that had resulted in a society which back in 2008 had at least some semblance of implicitly civilized democratic functioning.
Roe v Wade fell in 2022 and based on the societal attitudes I had witnessed bts in tech sector adjacent academic science and psychiatry starting from the Fall of 2011, I was less surprised than many.
However imperfect the running implementation of a democratic state, whatever the new directions selected, they should not set course in actively worse directions.
I cannot see common ground with anyone who sees the overturning of Roe v Wade as inconsequential.
These are examples of people I trust: lawyers or regulators like Lina Khan, Aziz Huq, Rohit Chopra; doctors like Dr. Caitlin Bernard, Dr. Warren Hern, Dr. Fauci or Dr. Clayton Dalton; scientists like Dr. Henrik Mouritsen, Dr. Peter Hore, Dr. Adam Becker, Prof Paul Ehrlich, Dr. Madhav Gadgil, Prof Ryan Williams or Dr. Francis Collins; tech journalists like Yasha Levine or Ed Zitron; privacy groups like Privacy International or the Internet Freedom Foundation; environmental journalists like Chris Ketcham; AI safety groups like Timnit Gebru’s DAIR; groups that safeguard women’s rights such as Planned Parenthood; whistleblowers like Hemant Kappana; hopefully regulatory bodies like the TRAI; most MeToo complainants, though I am wary of PMC involvement as they tend to favor shitty institutions not harassed women and finding a path that involves due process for all without PMC bullshit is an ongoing concern.
I never buy the current crop of business leaders in tech. Vinod Khosla is portrayed as better occasionally and I disagree. Although Khosla doesn’t seem particularly sexist, he is very autocratic and women fare worse in dictatorships.
On the whole I think Khosla is more dangerous than Elon Musk, who at least doesn’t pretend to be anything he is not.
Vinod Khosla, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella and Marc Andreessen are my four least favorite people in tech.
Best case, these guys are not people I can take seriously. And Vinod Khosla angers me outright with how imperious, sleazy, disingenuous and daft he is. Not the man who should be calling anyone a “dope”.
Lina Khan was a corrective move and even some Republicans like her. Businesspeople who attack Lina Khan truly show how ott their worldviews are.
This is an oped I really liked from the last election season. I save pieces like these. My mom used to collect newspaper cuttings so that makes sense:
https://newrepublic.com/article/187156/mark-cuban-harris-working-class
Am a chip of the old block! The exclamation mark connotes enthusiasm wrt using the present day web.
I am trying to organize information like this into a pattern in my journal.
= new reply since forum marked as read