A fascinating post by Leo Goldstein taking a look at Al Gore's influence in Silicon Valley and how SV has changed:
Has Al Gore Remade Silicon Valley in his Image?
The story of Silicon Valley’s embrace of climate alarmism and all things hard Left went from mystery to crime thriller. In fact, Al Gore played an enormous role in Silicon Valley’s transformation from technological marvel into marketing/finance/software/censorship hub, animated by Leftist passion for destruction and deep-ecology anti-humanism, both amplified by artificial intelligence.
No, this is not because Al Gore invented the internet. In fact, he has never said he did. Al Gore made a much stronger statement: “I took the initiative in creating the Internet…” (1999 video). Inventing is only a small part in creating. Thus, Al Gore pretended to be almost a Creator of the Internet. Of course, it is not true. But he has done a lot to remake the technological industries and the whole U.S. economy in his own image.
Al Gore has been involved in the tech since his vice presidency and after that. From Forbes, 2013:
“Along with cultivating Current [TV], Gore, 64, joined the board of Apple in 2003 and served as a senior adviser on green issues to Google beginning in 2001, three years before the company went public. As of February, Gore, who is still an Apple director, held more than $35 million in stock and options in the Cupertino, Calif. technology firm.”
Al Gore made more than $30M on Apple options alone (1). The eBay billionaire Jeffrey Skoll financed his 2006 movie The Inconvenient Truth. But probably the most important among Al Gore’s connections to Silicon Valley was his role in Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) venture capital firm, which he joined as a partner in 2007. He probably is not active today, but his name still appears on KPCB website. He probably retains interest in some of the KPCB investments, and is still liable to the investors as a general partner (VCs are not limited liability corporations). Al Gore remained politically active after he lost 2000 elections. He considered running for President in 2008 and participated in the launch of the notorious “Attorneys General for Clean Power” witch hunt in 2016. His party comrades also remained in the federal and state governments, especially in California and Washington. KPCB is a legendary venture capital firm. Its investments include Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Uber, and countless other successful companies in the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
I love that sentence in the first paragraph:
In fact, Al Gore played an enormous role in Silicon Valley’s transformation from technological marvel into marketing/finance/software/censorship hub, animated by Leftist passion for destruction and deep-ecology anti-humanism, both amplified by artificial intelligence.
So true - it happened incrementally so most of us never noticed. The big breakthroughs are no longer happening, it is now patent trolling and crony capitalism - Silicon Valley has lost its mojo. It has become gentrified. The Overton Window at work.
I wonder where the next SV will spring up - Detroit or some place like it? Cheap real estate and a lot of intelligent people hanging around with nothing but ideas and a passion.
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