It is increasingly discouraging, if not terrifying, to see that the richest man in the world, the South African Elon Musk, is an enlightened childish champion of inequality through the deconstruction of the State; white supremacist; addicted to work, an activity that he would like to deny to other mortals; ardent promoter of AI; rocket builder with which he intends to go to another planet; network manipulator; all or nothing player, without him caring about the consequences... and a long etcetera.
Even before going into space, Musk does not seem to belong to this world. His immense fortune allows him to throw firefighter ideas left and right, or even make crazy investments that would be ruinous for anyone else. He recently went so far as to assure British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that “there will come a time when no job will be necessary”, presumably not even that of his battered interlocutor.
But little by little we begin to glimpse the hidden side of this crazy tycoon, and it is anything but pretty. Even so, he has more than 160 million followers on his own platform, now called X, formerly Twitter. And it is here where he can most and best slip anti-Semitic conspiracy theories or cheer white supremacy.
One of the reasons why he asks for less State is because he not only wants to pay less taxes, but he longs not to pay any. Let that 1% of rich people who monopolize 82% of the world's wealth rule and let the other 99% get blood sausage. It doesn't take a great intellectual effort to understand it. Another thing is to accept it.
Silicon Valley has its roots in Palo Alto and its relationship with Stanford University. It can be said that the technological revolution worldwide took its first steps in the Xerox PARC laboratories, in Palo Alto, by presenting to the public in 1973 a computing system that included icons, windows, files, which were accessed with a mouse, that is, a brilliant invention that is still with us. But Xerox did not know how to amortize the investment and after a few years it was Apple that cornered the market with a system that was very similar to Xerox's, but available to everyone.
A race was already underway that would create in Palo Alto and nearby Silicon Valley, a new gold rush, like the one in 1848, which put California on the map. But just like the deluded people who searched for nuggets in rivers, in most cases without success, today's computer scientists and investors suffer a similar fate. It is estimated that 90% of start-ups fail. Even so, Silicon Valley remains an irresistible magnet for thousands of brilliant minds and a colossal generator of wealth.
On the land occupied by Stanford University there was previously a farm dedicated to the selective and scientific breeding of horses called Palo Alto Stock Farm, with 150 employees. A red barn at one end of the university bears witness to this. The automobile had not yet been invented, so breeding stronger and faster horses was by no means a far-fetched idea.
Now, a selection system based on eugenics was used on the farm, a dangerous pseudo-science then in vogue based on the selection and, therefore, the improvement of species, including human beings, as would occur from its beginnings. at Stanford University, which always gave preference to young white people destined to be future leaders and achievers, in order to improve the dominant race.
Very little has changed since then in the deadly competitive and greedy Silicon Valley, as Elon Musk attests with his supremacist diatribes on the platforms that distribute misinformation to millions of people. What is really at stake is not so much Musk's fortune, which is also the way things are going, but the democratic system that has allowed him to succeed but which he despises, as Trump has well understood, which may be the winning horse. in the next presidential elections.
