From Elon Musk to Sam Altman, tech billionaires have the ambition and power to leave their mark on the world. How are their political, economic and philosophical beliefs impacting democracy as we know it?
While they may seem like a random group of men with boyhood dreams and a lot of money, tech giants such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg have very close ties to Donald Trump and The White House. Science journalist George van Hal set out to investigate what characterizes this group of men, and how they are asserting their shadow power in the US.
He reveals that their dreams of immortality and godlike AI are inspired by dystopian science fiction. These dreams often go hand in hand with a desire to dismantle democracy and an obsession with procreation. Is the world being transformed into a nightmare by the futuristic fantasies of a few billionaires?
George van Hal is a science journalist for the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, where he writes about astronomy, physics, aerospace and science fiction. He is the author of several popular science books on topics such as robotics, aliens and superheroes. This year, together with Laurens Verhagen, he published the book De techbro’s.
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