Tech tycoons are taking a perilous gamble with the future of humanity.

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While there’s a sprawling patchwork of ideas and philosophies shaping these visions, three features play a central role, according to Adam Becker, a science writer and astrophysicist: an unwavering belief that technology can resolve any challenge, a commitment to perpetual growth, and a near-religious fascination with surpassing our physical and biological limitations. In his timely new book, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity, Becker refers to this triad of beliefs as the “ideology of technological salvation” and cautions that tech leaders are using it to guide humanity down a perilous path.

“In most of these ideologies, you’ll find the concepts of escape and transcendence, as well as the promise of an extraordinary future filled with unimaginable wonders—provided we don’t obstruct technological progress.”

“The credence that tech billionaires give to these specific science-fictional futures legitimizes their pursuit of more—to present the growth of their enterprises as a moral obligation, to simplify the complex challenges facing the world into straightforward technological questions, and to rationalize nearly any actions they may wish to undertake,” he writes. Becker contends that the only way to liberate ourselves from these visions is to recognize them for what they are: convenient justifications to continue environmental destruction, bypass regulations, accumulate power and control, and neglect pressing issues of today in favor of speculative concerns of the future.

Numerous critics, academics, and journalists have attempted to define or distill the Silicon Valley ethos over the years. There was the “Californian Ideology” in the mid-’90s, the “Move fast and break things” mentality of the early 2000s, and more recently, the “Libertarianism for me, feudalism for thee” or “techno-authoritarian” perspectives. How does the “ideology of technological salvation” fit into this landscape?

I’d say it very much aligns with those earlier efforts to characterize the Silicon Valley mindset. You can draw a clear line from Max More’s principles of transhumanism in the ’90s to the Californian Ideology [a blend of countercultural, libertarian, and neoliberal values] and onward to what I term the ideology of technological salvation. Many of the ideas that define or inspire Silicon Valley thinking have never been particularly obscure—libertarianism, disdain for government regulation, unbounded faith in technology, and an obsession with optimization.

What can be challenging is understanding where all these ideas originate and how they interconnect—or if they even do. I coined the term “ideology of technological salvation” to articulate and clarify a set of interrelated concepts and philosophies that might initially seem sprawling and ill-defined, but actually lie at the core of a worldview shared by venture capitalists, executives, and other thought leaders in the tech industry.

Readers will likely be familiar with the tech billionaires discussed in your book and some of their aspirations. However, they may be less acquainted with the various ideologies that you argue have influenced their thinking. Effective altruism, rationalism, long-termism, extropianism, effective accelerationism, futurism, singularitarianism, and transhumanism—there are many. Is there something they all share?

They are indeed interconnected. In a sense, they could all be seen as variations of the ideology of technological salvation, but there are also significant historical ties between these groups and their aims and beliefs. The Extropians in the late ’80s believed in self-transformation through technology and freedom from all limitations—ideas that Ray Kurzweil later popularized for a broader audience with the concept of the Singularity.

In many of these ideologies, you’ll find the notions of escape and transcendence, along with the promise of a remarkable future rich with unimaginable wonders—provided we do not hinder technological progress. It’s worth noting that AI researcher Timnit Gebru and philosopher Émile Torres have also contributed significantly to linking these ideologies and illustrating their connections to issues such as racism, misogyny, and eugenics.

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