When the tech industry lacks credible, shared long‑term projects, talent and capital drift into easy‑profit products that monetize loneliness and libido, like AI 'companions.' This shifts frontier innovation from public‑good ambitions (energy, biotech, infrastructure) to scalable isolation machines.
— If true, aligning tech with national missions becomes a cultural and governance priority to avoid a default future of atomizing 'goonbots.'
Jason Crawford
2025.10.10
72% relevant
Crawford argues modern elites lack a frontier and grand purpose, echoing the claim that without credible shared missions talent drifts into trivial or corrosive tech; he cites Silicon Valley's ad‑optimization lament and Paramilantir’s CEO on the loss of national purpose.
Mike Solana
2025.08.21
100% relevant
Solana’s claim that the 'absence of a future vision' is paving a 'road to hell' where xAI’s companion product exemplifies the turn toward pornified AI.
Robin Hanson
2025.08.20
50% relevant
Hanson’s proposed tie‑ins to 'sacred long‑term goals' (immortality, space) reflects the need for credible, galvanizing missions to redirect elite preferences toward adaptiveness rather than short‑term, audience‑pleasing moralism.
Johann Kurtz
2025.08.12
84% relevant
The piece argues that, lacking a shared long‑term vision, tech defaults to 'slop'—AI companions, porn/video gen, gambling-like gamification—echoing the thesis that a vacuum of credible missions pushes capital and talent into monetizing loneliness and libido.
Erik Hoel
2025.06.26
60% relevant
By arguing the Valley's mythology has become self-cannibalizing and anti-human (e.g., celebrating job displacement), the piece aligns with the thesis that absent credible missions, talent drifts into low-value, corrosive products.