
Silicon Valley has lost some of its shine in recent months, what with the âfake newsâ and the bots and the hacks and the hate speech. All the promises about the democratization of information and power ring a little hollow nowadays. Iâd say they rang a little hollow all along. Of course thatâs what Iâd say. Iâve been saying it for years now. Thereâs a new tale thatâs being told with increasing frequency these days, in which tech industry executives and employees come forward â sometimes quite sheepishly, sometimes quite boldly â and admit that they have regrets, that theyâre no longer âbelievers,â that they now recognize their work has been damaging to individuals and to society at large, that they were wrong. These arenât apologies as much as theyâre confessions.
An essay about technologists saying the equivalent of “Do as I say, not as I do.” and “Don’t pay any attention to that man behind the curtain.”