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A 1\EPOI\TER. AT LAI\GE CHANGE THE WORLD Silicon Valley transfers its slogans-and its money--to the realm ofpolitics .

BY GEORGE PACKER.

n 1978, the year that I graduated from year's Facebook public stock offering which promised to transport couples back I high school, in Palo Alto, the name alone creared halfa dozen more ofthe for­ to a time when local residents lived in Silicon Valley was not in use beyond a mer and more than a thousand ofthe lat­ two-thousand-square-foot houses---wid small group of tech cognoscenti. Apple ter. There are also record numbers ofpoor for forty-three thousand dollars. Computer had incorporated the previous people, and the past two years have seen The technology industry's newest year, releasing the first popular personal a twenty-per-cent rise in homelessness, wealth is swallowing up the San Francisco computer, the Apple II. The major tech­ largely because of the soaring cost of Peninsula. If Silicon Valley remains the nology companies made electronics hard­ housing. After decades in which the center of engineering breakthroughs, San ware, and on the way to school I rode my country has become less and less equal, Francisco has become a magnet for hun­ bike through the Stanford Industrial Silicon Valley is one of the most unequal dreds ofsoftware start-ups, many ofthem Park, past the offices ofHewlett- Packard, places in America. in the South ofMarket area, where Twit­ Varian, and Xerox PARC. The neighbor­ Private-school attendance has surged, ter has its headquarters. (Half the start­ hoods of the Santa Clara Valley were while public schools in poor communi­ ups seem to have been fow1ded by Face­ dotted with cheap, modern, one-story ties- such as East Palo Alto, which is book alumni.) A lot ofyounger employees houses--.:alled Eichlers, after the builder mosdy cut off from the city by Highway ofSilicon Valley companies live in the city Joseph Eichler-with glass walls, open 101 - have f.illen into disrepair and lack and commute to work in white, Wi-Fi­ floor plans, and flat-roofed carports. basic supplies. In wealthy districts, the equipped company buses, which collect (Steve Jobs grew up in an imitation public schools have essentially been priva­ passengers at fifteen or so stops around Eichler, called a Likeler.) The average tized; they insulate themselves from San Francisco. The buses-whose sched­ house in Palo Alto cost about a hundred shortfalls in state funding with money ules are withheld from the public-have and twenty-five thousand dollars. Along raised by foundations they have set up for become a vivid emblem ofthe tech boom's the main downtown street, University themselves. In 1983, parents at Woodside stratifYing effect in d1e Bay Area. Rebecca Avenue-the future address of PayPal, Elementary School, which is surrounded Soh1it, who has lived in San Fran cisco for Facebook, and Google-were sports by some of the Valley's wealthiest tech thirty years, recendy wrote in The London shops, discount variety stores, and several families, started a foundation in order to Review of Books, "Sometimes d1e Google art-house cinemas, together with the offiet budget cuts resulting from the en­ Bus just seems like one face of Janus­ shuttered, X- rated Paris Theatre. Across actment ofProposition 13, in 1978, which headed capitalism; it contains the people El Camino Real, the Stanford Shopping drastically limited California property too valuable even to use public transport or Center was anchored by Macy's and taxes. TheWoodside School Foundation drive themselves. Right by the Google bus Woolworth's, with one boutique store­ now brings in about two million dollars a stop on Cesar Chavez Street immigrant a Victoria's Secret had opened inl977- year for a school with fewer than five hun­ men from Latin America stand waiting and a parking lot full of Datsuns and dred children, and every spring it hosts a for employers in the building trade to Chevy Novas. High-end dining was vir­ gala with a live auction. I attended it two scoop them up, or to be arrested and de­ tually unknown in Palo Alto, as was the years ago, when the theme was RockS tar, ported by the govemment." Some of the adjective "high-end." The public schools and one ofGoogle's first employees sat at city's hottest restaurants are popping up in in the area were excellent and almost uni­ my table after performing in a pickup the neighborhoods with shuttle stops. versally attended; the few kids I knew who band called Parental Indiscretion. School Rents d1ere are rising even futer than else­ went to private school had somehow benefactors, dressed up as Tina Turner or where in San Fran cisco, and in some cases messed up. The Valley was thoroughly Jimmy Page, and consumingJump'n Jack they have doubled in the past year. middle class, egalitarian, pleasant, and a Flash hanger steaks, bid thirteen thou­ The buses carry their wired cargo litde boring. sand dollars for Pimp My Hog! ("Ride south to the "campuses" ofGoogle, Face­ Thirty-five years later, the average through town in your vety own custom­ book, Apple, and other companies, which house in Palo Alto sells for more than two ized 1996 Harley Davidson XLH1200C are designed to be fully functioning com­ million dollars. The Stanford Shopping Sportster") and twenty thousand for a tour munities, not just places for working. Center's parking lot is a sea of Lexuses of the Japanese gardens on the estate of Google's grounds, in Mountain View----a and Audis, and their owners are shopping Larty Elliwn, the founder of Oracle and working-class town when I was growing at Burberry and Louis Vuitton. There are the cow1try's highest-paid chiefexecutive . up----are modelled on the casual, Frisbee­ fifty or so billionaires and tens of thou­ The climax arrived when a Mad Men throwing feel of Stanford University, the sands ofmillionaires in Silicon Valley; bst Supper Club dinner for sixteen guests- incubator of Silicon Valley, where the

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In Silicon Valley, government is considered slow, staffid by mediocrities, and ridden with obsolete rules and inifficiencies.

ILLUSTRATION BY ISTVAN BANYAI THE NEW YO~KER, MAY 27, 200 45

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company's founders met, in grad school. making the country energy-independent, recounted how young Lebanese Muslims A polychrome Google bike can be picked no one takes them too seriously-it's a who might have been tempted by extrem­ up anywhere on campus, and left any­ given that their motivation is profit. But ism broadened their views after going on where, so that another employee can use when technology entrepreneurs describe Facebook and mending people "who have it. Electric cars, kept at a charging station, their lofty goals there's no smirk or wink. gone to Europe." He suggested that the allow employees to run errands. Face­ "Many see their social responsibiLity social network could help solve the prob­ book's buildings, in Menlo Park, between fulfilled by their businesses, not by social lem of terrorism, "It's not out of a deep 101 and the salt marshes along the Bay, or political action," one young entrepre­ hatred ofanyone," Zuckerberg offered. "It surround a simulated town square whose neur said of his colleagues. "Jt's remark­ comes from a lack of connectedness, a concrete surface is decorated with the ably convenient that they can achieve all lack of communication, a lack of empa­ word "HACK," in letters so large that they their goals just by doing their start-up." thy, and a lack ofunderstanding." Succes­ can be seen from the air. At Facebook, He added, 'They actually think that Face­ sive U.S. Administrations had failed to employees can eat sushi or burritos, lift book is going to be the panacea for many resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; weights, get a haircut, have their clothes of the world's problems. lt isn't cyni­ perhaps the answer was to get as many dry-cleaned, and see a dentist, all without cism-it's arrogance and ignorance." people as possible on Facebook. leaving work. Apple, meanwhile, plans to A few years ago, when Barack Obama The conflicting pressures of Silicon spend nearly five billion dollars to build a visited one Silicon Valley campus, an em­ Valley-its work ethic, status conscious­ giant, impenetrable ringed headquarters ployee of the company told a colleague ness, idealism, and greed- were summed in the middle ofa park that is technically that he wasn't going to take time from up in an ad for the University ofSan Fran­ part ofCupertino . These inward-looking his work to go hear the President's re­ cisco that I spotted on a public bus shelter places keep tech workers from having marks, explaining, "l'm making more ofa south of Market Street: "Become wildly even accidental contact with the sur­ difference than anybody in government successful without becoming a ;erk no one rounding community. The design critic could possibly make." Jn 2006, Google likes. Change the world from here." Alexandra Lange, in her recent e-book, started its philanthropic arm, Google.org, The technology industry, by seques­ 'The Dot-Com City: Silicon Valley Ur­ but other tech giants did not follow its tering itselffrom the community it inhab­ banism," writes, 'The more Silicon Valley lead. At places like Facebook, it was felt its, has transformed the Bay Area without tech companies embrace an urban model, that making the world a more open and being changed by it- in a sense, without the harder it becomes for them to explain connected place could do far more good getting its hands dirty. TI1roughout most why they need to remain aloof. People than working on any charitable cause. of Silicon Valley's history, its executives who don't have badges aren't just a secu­ Two of the key words in industry jargon have displayed a libertarian instinct to stay rity risk." are "impactful" and "scalable"- rapid as far from politics and govenunent as The industry's splendid isolation in­ growth and human progress are seen as possible. Reid Hoffman described the at­ spires cognitive dissonance, for it's an ar­ virtually indistinguishable. One of the titude this way: "Look what I cando as an ticle offaith in Silicon Valley that the mottoes posted on the walls at Facebook individual myself-everyone else should technology industry represents something is "Move fast and break things." Govern­ be able to do that, too. I can make a multi­ more utopian, and democratic, than mere ment is considered slow, staffed by medi­ billion-dollar company with a little bit of special-interest groups. The information ocrities, ridden with obsolete rules and investment, \my can't the whole world revolution (the phrase itself conveys a inefficiencies. do that?" But the imperative to change the sense ofbusiness exceptionalism) emerged Reid Hoffman, the co-founder ofthe world has recendy led some Silicon Val­ from the Bay Area counterculture of the professional networkLinkedln and an in­ ley leaders to imagine that the values and sixties and seventies, influenced by the vestor in dozens of Silicon Valley firms, concepts behind d1eir success can be up­ hobbyists who formed the Homebrew told me, "In investing, you want to have loaded to d1e public sphere. Computer Club and by idealistic engi­ milestones that go between three and neers like Douglas Engelbart, who helped twelve months, to know you're making "\ ]{ Then Zuckerberg created Face­ develop the concept of hypertext and ar­ progress. The government purchasingpro­ V V book, in 2004, he was a sopho­ gued that digital networks could boost our cess is a year plus!" Joshua Cohen, a Stan­ more at Harvard. Most ofhis roommates "collective l.Q" From the days ofApple's ford political philosopher who also edits joined the effort, but Joe Green did not. inception, the personal computer was Boston Review, described a conversation Zuckerberg and Green, who were mem­ seen as a tool for personal liberation; with he had with John Hennessy, the president bers of Harvard's Jewish fraternity, had the arrival ofsocial media on the ] ntemet, of Stanford, who has extensive financial collaborated on Facemash, a site where digital technology announced itself as a and professional ties to Silicon Valley. Harvard students could rate the hotness force for global betterment. The phrase "He was talking about the incompetent of their classmates. This brought them "change the world" is tossed around Sili­ people who are in government," Cohen both before the university's disciplinary con Valley conversations and business recalled. ''I said, 'If you think they're so in­ board, and Green's father, a U.C.L.A. plans as freely as talk of "early-stage in­ competent, why don't you include in a math professor, was not pleased. In any vesting" and "beta tests." speech you're making some urging of case, Green didn't really consider himself \"~hen financiers say that they're doing Stanford students to go into government?' a tech person-he was a political guy. At God's work by providing cheap credit, He thought this was a ridiculous idea." Santa Monica High School, he had won and oilmen claim to be patriots who are ln a 2008 interview, Mark Zuckerbcrg the student seat on the local school board

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and organized a living-wage campaign. other hand, people are just completely Andreessen is a big, bullet-headed man At Harvard, he studied under Marshall disconnected from politics. Partly because from Wisconsin, 'vith a blunt, fast-talk­ Ganz, the theorist of community activ­ the operating principles ofpolitics and the ing manner. He supported Obama in ism, and for h.is senior thesis he inter­ operating principles of tech are com­ 2008 but switched to M.itt Romney last viewed working-class men in Louisville pletely different." Whereas politics is year, because, he told me, Romney was a about their ideas ofeconomic opportunity transactional and opaque, based on hier­ superb ch.ief executive. and the American Dream. (In general, archies and handshakes, Green argued, Andreessen described to me the stages they believed that people were fun dam en­ ternnology is empirical and often trans­ of the industry's attitude toward political tally equal and that income distribution parent, driven by data. engagement. The first, prevailing in the should reflect that.) In the summer of In 2010,just mead ofthe premiere of seventies and eighties, was 'Just leave us 2003, between h.is sophomore and junior the film "The Social Network," which alone. Letusdoourth.ing."T.J. Rodgers, years, Green volw1teered for Jolm Kerry's portrayed the origins ofFacebook in an the founder of Cypress Semiconductor, Presidential campaign in New Hamp­ unflattering light, Zuckerberg announced said that anyone who got involved in pol­ shire, where he realized that the job of a that he would pledge up to a hundred mil­ itics was making a big mistake, warning, political organizer would be much easier lion dollars to d1e Newark public-school '1fyou talk to these people, they'll just get ifeveryone were on F riendster--an early, system- his first visible foray into philan­ in your ass." The Valley's libertarianism­ and doomed, social network that he had thropy. The money was intended to en­ which ignores the federal government's joined. He returned to Harvard, and courage certain refonns in the education crucial role in providing researrn money­ urged Zuckerberg to use his program­ bureaucracy, including merit pay for is less doctrinal than instinctive. Andrees­ ming talent to build a political social net­ teachers. Green pointed out that Zuck­ sen said, '1t's very possible for somebody work. But Zuckerberl( was more inter­ erberl( was spendinl( a lot of money just to show up here----a twenty-four-year-old ested in starting a business. He had an to change the rules in one mid-sized engineer who's completely state ofthe art idea for a college social network. urban school district. He could spend in building companies and products­ "No more Zuckerberg projects," that money in politics and potentially be and have had absolutely no exposure at all Green's father wamed h.im. And so Green more effective. to politics, social issues, h.istory. When the chose not to drop out and move to Silicon government shows up, it's bad news.l11ey Valley with Zuckerberg and the other recendy met with Marc Andreessen, a go, 'Oh, my God, government is evil, I roommates. T hat summer, wh.ile Face­ I general partner in one of Silicon Val­ didn't understand how bad it was. We book was being created, he went to work ley's most powerful venture-capital finns, must fight it."' as a Kerry field organizer in Arizona and Andreessen Horowitz. H.is office, in an Andreessen h.imself once fit th.is type. Nevada. For years afterward, Zuckerberg idyllic ghetto of similar companies on In 1993, when he was just twenty-one, teased h.im: instead of getting billions of Sand Hill Road, in Menlo Park, was he helped develop Mosaic, the first pop­ dollars, he'd lost two states for Kerry. clearly inspired by the decor of "Mad ular Web browser. After the company he In another era, Green might have gone Men": paintings by Roben Rausrnenberg co-founded, Netscape, launwed its Nav­ on to an intemsh.ip at The Nation or a job and other American artists of the sixties, igator browser, the government insisted on Capitol Hill. Instead, he headed West a sideboard displaying bordes ofexpensive that its encryption-wh.iw was so strong after graduating and, with no program­ wh.iskey. On his desk sat the record­ that U.S. intelligence couldn't break it­ ming skills, started two technology com­ player that adorned the office of Pete be weakened for foreign sales, so that panies. In 2007, he and Sean Parker, the Campbell in the show's first three seasons. terrorists and other criminals couldn't use Silicon Valley entrepreneur, launwed Causes, a Facebook application that helps grass-roots organizations and nonprofits raise money. Last year, Green created Na­ tionBuilder, a software platform that pro­ vides digital tools for political campaigns and community organizers. Green was better at starting th.ings than at running them, and he was eventually removed from the leadership of both companies, the second one th.is past February. (Green says that h.is departures were voluntary.) AU the while, he continued to try to inter­ est h.is ex-roommate in politics, but for a long time Zuckerberg was interested only in his own company. "People in tern, when they talk about why they started their company, they tend to talk about changing the world," Green said. "I th.ink it's actually genuine. On the "Well, we can kiss being free-range goodbye."

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Party. Instead of having a wide-ranging discussion, the tech leaders focussed narrowly on pet issues. John Chambers, of Cisco, kept pushing for a tax holiday on overseas profits that are reinvested in the United States. According to Wal­ ter Isaacson's biography ofJobs, while Chambers was lobbying Obama, over cod and lentil salad, Zuckerberg turned to Valerie Jarrett, the President's adviser, and whispered, 'We should be talking about what's important to the country. Why is he just talking about what's good for him?" When it was Jobs's turn, he asked for more H-lB visas for foreign students who earn engineering degrees in the U.S.-a longtime Silicon Valley desire. Obama told him that the issue could be addressed only in the context of broader immigration reforms, such as allowing "There were balloons andgames and cake, yet somehow children who had arrived here ille~lly I was inftcted by a sad sense oftime passing." with their parents to gain legal status. Zuckerberg came away from the gath­ ering impressed with Obama but sorely disappointed in his own industry. The most dynamic sector of the American Netscape's cryptography. This demand thing." The intellectual model is not the economy had no larger agenda. required the company to create a different dour Ayn Rand but Bay Area philoso­ Zuckerberg spoke about his conoerns product for export. Ben Horowitz, An­ phers and gurus who imagine that limit­ with Green, who said d1at the country's dreessen's partner, who ran Netscape's less progress can be achieved through biggest challenge was to equip more product division, said, "It's hard to de­ technology. Stewart Brand, now seventy­ Americans to benefit from the Informa­ scribe what a fucking royal pain in the ass four, popularized the term "personal com­ tion Age. With so many jobs lost to auto­ this was. We were totally flabbergasted." puter" and made "hacker" the tech equiv­ mation, and more wealth concentrated in Later, after other technology leaders alentoffreedom fighter. His Whole Earth fewer hands, that prospect was slipping were given classified briefings on how Catalog---jl compendium of hippie prod­ farther away. Silicon Valley was racing terrorists operated, he and Andreessen ucts, generated by users, that is now con­ into the future, but the kinds of people realized that the Feds had a point. sidered an analog precursor ofthe Web-­ Green had interviewed in Louisville were "Maybe they didn't totally understand all can still be fow1d on desks at Facebook. becoming increasingly marginal. Ftxing the implications of everything," Horo­ In the past fifieen years or so, Andrees­ this dynamic would require the expertise, witz said. "But we didn't understand their sen explained, Silicon Valley's hands-off the time, and the money of technology job, either." Eventually, industry argu­ attitude has changed, as the industry has leaders. ''How do we move America into ments prevailed and the government, grown larger and its activities keep collid­ the knowledge economy?" Green asked which didn't want foreign competitors to ing with regulations. Technology leaders me. "And how do we create a voice for the gain an advantage over U.S. businesses, began to realize that Washington could knowledge community that is about the withdrew its request. sometimes be useful to them. "A small future and not selfish? If we organize this Horowitz-who is the son of David number of very high-end Valley people community, it could be one of the most Horowitz, the radical tun1ed conservative have got involved in politics, but in a way powerful voices in politics." He dropped polemicist-attributed Silicon Valley's that a lot of us think is relendessly self-in­ the idea ofselflessness . "'think our selfish strain oflibertarianism to the mentality of terested," Andreessen said. The issues that interest actually aligns with the broader engineers. "Libertarianism is, theoreti­ first animated these technology executives interest of creating jobs and growing the cally, a relatively elegant solution," he said. were stock options, subsidies, and tax economy." "People here have a great affinity for that breaks. "They started giving the Valley a Earlier this year, Zuckerberg began kind of thing-they want eleganoe. Most bad name in Washington-that the Val­ teaching a elass on entrepreneurship, one people here are relatively apolitical and not leywas just another special-interest group." aftemoon a week, to middle-school stu­ that knowledgeable about how these large In early 2011, Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, dents in a poor community near Face­ complicated systems of societies work. and other Silicon Valley mob>Ws attended book's headquarters. He decided to ask Libertarianism has got a lot of the false a dinner with PresidentObamain Wood­ his students about their college plans. One positives that Communism had, in that it's side, at the home ofJohn Doerr, a venture young man said that he might not be a vety sin1ple solution that solves every- capitalist with ties to the Democratic able to attend college, because he and his

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parents had illegally entered the country, T -shirt, with his left leg propped on a lutely everything has changed over the last from Mexico, when he was a baby. The decora.tive rock bowl and immobilized in decade," Newsom writes. "In government story stuck with Zuckerberg. Mter the a brace. (He had broken it skiing.) A very Litde has ... . Technology has ren­ Republican losses in the 2012 elections, young assistant named Manny brought dered our current system of government comprehensive immigration reform­ water and walnuts. Green's frizzy hair irrelevant, so now government must turn including more H-lB visas---iiuddenly fluttered in the wind blowing off the to technology to fix itself." This is the seemed possible in Washington. It also ocean as he worked his phone and his book's breezily apocalyptic theme. As looked like the most promising issue for MacBookAir, which was decora.ted with mayor, Newsom became friends with technology leaders to organize around­ a sticker that said, 'The Dream Is Now." Sergey Brin and Larry Page, d1e founders a case of self-interest aligning with the An op-ed by Zuckerbergwas going to run of Coogle; instituted smart parking me­ broader interest. in the Washington Post the next morning, ters; and used cloud computing to collect Zuckerberg and Green began talking announcing the formation ofa new group data on the needs ofthe city's large home­ to Silicon Valley leaders about starting a in Silicon Valley, called FWD.us. "I'm the less population. Project Homeless Con­ political-advocacy group: Andreessen; president of the organization," Green nect, as the effort was named, gready inl­ Horowitz; Reid Hoffman; Marissa said. "There will be an actual office." He proved San Francisco's ability to provide Mayer, of Yahoo; Eric Schmidt, of was returning to his first passion, political the homeless with services- if people Coogle; and at least three dozen others. organizing. His wide, stubbly face broke complained oftooth pain, say, volunteers The interest was strong, as ifthey had all into a smile: he had spent ten years trying could tell them where to get free dental been waiting for something like this. to convince Zuckerberg that politics mat­ care. It's considered one ofNewsom's suc­ Though Andreessen and Horowitz didn't ters, and he had finally done it. cesses, and has been replicated in hun­ join the project, Andreessen thought it dreds of other cities. But people 1 spoke represented "the maturation ofthe indus­ avin \lewsom was the mayor ofSan with also said that Newsom's use oftech ­ try" and a greater level of engagement in G Francisco from 2004 to 2011. He nology in government sometimes seemed politics- "deeper, longer-term, with, became nationally known when, in 2004, like a flashy distraction. In 2008, instead frankly, more money." he legalized gay marriage in the city, de­ ofdelivering his State ofthe City address Hoffman, who believes that immigra­ spite a statewide ban. He currendy suffers before a live audience, Newsom uploaded tion refonn would right a wrong and also the indignities ofbeing California's lieu­ a seven-and-a-half-hour speech to You­ create new jobs at every level, from soft­ tenant governor, but he is talked about as Tube; after being ridiculed, he abandoned ware engineers to dry cleaners, told Zuck­ a successor to Governor Jerry Brown, if the pra.ctice. erberg, "The normal Silicon Valley thing not a Presidential candidate. He's tall, Since then, Newsom has become even is to focus on high-end visas and say, The with perfect teeth, almost provokingly more ofa believer in tech as the answer to rest ofit's not my problem.'" handsome, and also self-mocking ('Td go what ails government. "Citizenville" rep­ "Yes," Zuckerberg said. "But there's after a guy like me--gelled hair"), with a resents thinking by analogy, and it's use­ this huge moral component. We might as jock's stride and habit ofcalling other men ful primarily as a guide to concepts and we~ go after all ~fit." . , , . " ''bro." We met in a cavernous private club, slogans about government in the age of O.K.,good, Hoffinansatd. 'Imtn. near the Embarcadero waterfront, which the Internet that are currendy circulating Earlier this year, Green wrote up a is known as Founders Den, and provides in the vapor of conferences, political fifteen-page plan- subsequendy leaked a "home base" for select start-ups and speeches, and TED Talks. ("Gov 2.0" is to Politico--which had more to do with "experienced entrepreneurs the term coined by the tech tapping Silicon Valley's potential as a po­ who are between projects." publicist Tim O'Reilly; he litical force than with the issue of immi­ Newsom rents a desk also coined the earlier term gration. One section ofthe text listed sev­ there--it's his San Francisco "Web 2.0.") Technology has eral reasons that "people in tech" could be office, and he wants to be flattened hierarchies. Data organized into "one of d1e most powerful considered part of the tech empowers people. Gov­ poLitical forces," including, "Our voice cohort. He stopped by the ernment is not a vending carries a lot of weight because we are desks ofhackers, who looked machine, with bureaucrats broadly popular with Americans." This up from their laptops to dispensing services, but a spring, the founders held a dinner, and greet the ex-mayor. platform-like Facebook, pledged money from their personal for­ Earlier this year, New­ Twitter, and the iPhone-­ tunes; reportedly, the collective goal was som, an obsessive reader of business where citizens can build their own apps fifty million dollars. A staff was hired in books, published "Citizenville: How to and interact with one another and come San Francisco, and political consultants Take the Town Square Digital and Rein­ up with their own solutions. from both parties were engaged in Wash­ vent Govemment," featuring blurbs from 'We have to meet the people where ington. One afternoon last month, Green Bill Clinton, Cory Booker, Michael they are," Newsom argues. "And where sat on the sunny rooftop terrace of a Bloomberg, Stewart Brand, Arianna they are right now is playing games and friend's town house in Pacific Heights, Huffington, and the founders of Yelp, spending time on social-networking just south of the Presidio, with views of Craigslist, and Sales Force; most of them sites." Online games that dra.w people into the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin were inteniewed for the book "In the pri­ collective competitions, like Farm Ville-­ hills. He was barefoot, in jeans and a red vate sector and in our personal lives, abso- the inspiration for the book's tide--can be

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models for civic improvements, by enlist­ didn't take that on squarely.! was looking lished "Future Perfect: The Case for Prog­ ing both government officials and citi­ at competence in government." ress in a Networked Age." Johnson argues zens in contests to find solutions for ur­ Technology can be an answer to in­ that traditional institutions and ideologies ban problems like potholes, and handing competence and inefficiency. But it has are giving way to a new philosophy, called out prizes to the winners. Why not use little to say about larger issues ofjustice "peer progressivism," in which collec­ "f,'llmification" to improve service at the and fairness, unless you think that politi­ tive problems are solved incrementally, Bronx and Brooklyn D.M. V.s, by pitting cal problems are bugs that can be fixed by through the decentralized activity of them against each other in a competition? engineering rather than fundamental countless interconnected equals-a pro­ Crowdsourcing, a Ia Kickstarter, points conflicts of interest and value. Evgeny cess that mirrors the dynamics of the In­ the way to fimding public projects by rais­ Morozov, in his new book ''To Save Ev­ ternet. In politics, peer progressivism ing money from interested citizens. New­ erything, Click Here," calls this belief"so­ could mean the rise of"citizen journalists" som writes, "What if you could create lutionism." Morozov, who is twenty-nine tweeting and posting on social media, or competition among city services .. and grew up in a mining town in Belarus, an innovation that Johnson calls "liquid through a kind of government Yelp? is the fiercest critic of technological opti­ democracy," which would allow you to Then we'd be on to something." mism in America, tirelessly dismantling transfer your vote to a friend who is more "Citizenville," which seems to be un­ the language ofits followers. "They want knowledgeable about, say, the school read, ifnot unknown, where its heroes live to be 'open,' they want to be 'disruptive,' board. In this thin book, Johnson takes and work, has won praise from no less than they want to 'innovate,' " Morozov told progress as a given, without seriously con­ Newt Gingrich. This shouldn't be surpris­ me. ''The open agenda is, in many ways, sidering cow1ter-argurnents about stagna­ ing, since its terms point toward an ar­ the opposite ofequality and justice. They tion and decline. It would be foolish to rangement in which many of the tasks of think anything that helps you to bypass in­ argue that America's mainstream media government are outsourced to citizens em­ stitutions is, by default, empowering or and political system are functioning as powered with smartphones. When New­ liberating. You might not be able to pay they should, but it's worth wondering if som acknowledged that San Fran cisco was for health care or your insurance, but ifyou "peer networks" really have the answers. becoming unaffordable to many resi­ have an app on your phone that alerts you An essay in the journal New Media & So­ dents-"Can't have a vibrant democracy to the fact that you need to exercise more, ciety, by Daniel Kreiss, of Yale; Megan without a vibrant middle class"-I asked or you aren't eating healthily enough, they Finn, of Berkeley; and Fred Turner, of how "Citizenville" addressed this problem. think they are solving the problem." Stanford, points out that a system of"peer "I don't know that it does," Newsom Steven Johnson, the author of many production" could be less egali:atian than said. 'Td like to have an answer to that. I books about technology, recently pub- the scorned old bureaucracies, in which "a person could achieve the proper creden­ tials and thus social power whether they came from wealth or poverty, an educated family or an ignorant one." In other words, "peer networks" could restore primacy to "class-based and purely social forms of capital," returning us to a society in which what really matters is whom you know, not what you could accomplish. A favorite word in tech circles is "fric­ tionless." It captures the pleasures of an app so beautifiilly designed that using it is intuitive, and it evokes a fantasy in which all inefficiencies, annoyances, and griev­ ances have been smoothed out of exis­ tence-that is, an apolitical world. Dave Morin, who worked at Apple and Face­ book, is the founder of a company called Path-a social nenvork limited to one's fifi:y closest friends. In his office, which has a panoramic view of south San Fran­ cisco, he said that one of his company's goals is to make technology increasingly seamless with real life. He described San Francisco as a place where people already live in the future. They can hangout with their friends even when they're alone. They inhabit a "sharing economy": they can book a weeklong stay in a cool apart-

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ment through Airbnb, which has dis­ solutions to transit and environmental or across the bridge, into the East Bay. rupted the hotel industry, or hire a luxury problems. l-Ie joined the county transpor­ Christina Olague, a former member of car anywhere in the city through the mo­ tation board, and found that the bus the city's Board of Supervisors, took me bile app Uber, which has disrupted the routes made no sense but couldn't be on a tour of several blocks in the Mission taxi industry. "San Francisco is a place fixed, because of budget shortfalls and District, where she works at a nonprofit where we can go downstairs and get in an pressure from constituents. that prepares low-income people for Uber and go to dinner at a place that I got "I leamed that it's an incnedibly broken whatever jobs might be available. The a restaurant reservation for halfWay there," and unscalable system," Green said. "I Mission, once a Latino neighborhood, Morin said. "And, ifnot, we could go to came out thinking, God, government's has become extremely popular with tech­ my place, and on the way there I could really not the right place to experiment nology workers. Wemetatacafe,on Va­ order takeout food from my favorite res­ with anyd1ing new. Govemment's really lencia Street, called Four Barrel Coffee, taurant on Postmates, and a bike messen­ not the right place to look to solve these which offers single-origin, hand-roasted ger will go and pick it up for me. We'll problems and to create innovative solu­ crafi coffee. Olague, who is in her fifties, watch it happen on the phone. These tions and scalable solutions in transporta­ is the daughter ofMexican farmworkers, things are crazy ideas." tion. This really belongs more in d1e pri­ and was once active in a local group called It suddenly occurred to me that the vate sector, where you're not burdened the Mission Anti-Displacement Coali­ hottest tech start-ups are solving all the with all these impossible restrictions." tion. "This is the kind of place I used to problems ofbeing twenty years old, with Last year, Green co-founded Lyft, a protest," she told me, looking aroW1d at cash on hand, because that's who thinks "rideshare" company with services in San the young Apple users. "And now here I them up. Francisco and other cities. Its motto is am, hanging out, waiting for half an hour In the real San Francisco, as elsewhere, "Your friend with a car." Through a mo­ to get a cup of coffee." She was having Morin added, things don't always work bile app, customers can call a car driven by trouble co•mecting with the newcomers. very well: "There are all kinds of infra­ an ordinary citizen who has been approved "People seem more self-absorbed, maybe structure problems that are, like, really, by Lyft, and who is available to give rides more individualistic in a way, less empa­ guys? This is San Francisco. The fact that while going about his regular business. thetic," she went on. "They're really ad­ some of the buses still run on diesel is The cars have a telltale fuzzy pink mus­ dicted to their iPads or phones. They crazy, or that the bus stop doesn't talk to tache faste:1ed to the front grille. "You get commmucate more, but d1ere's less com­ your i.Phone." Newsom, in his book, de­ in the front seat, and the driver gives you a munication with d1e people they're actu­ scribes an innovation in which hackers fist bump; Green explained. "It's a peer­ ally around." Her larger complaint, created an iPad app that allowed mwuci­ to-peer relationship, not a service relation­ though, was about the techies' indifference pal transport workers to keep track ofthe ship." The customer pays a suggested do­ to the pain that their industry's triumph is status of trains and buses without stand­ nation, twenty per cent of which goes to inflicting on many people who have been ing on the street with clipboards and Green's company. So far, Lyft has regis­ a part of the fabric of San Francisco for watching them go by. 'What I'd like to tered several hundred drivers, and Green decades. "Everyone's kind ofwary, 1 dUnk. see is 'Hackers 10,000, City 0,'" Newsom hopes that a crowdsourced transportation A lot ofpeople in the tech industry, sadly, writes. "This is the perfect example of system like Lyft will ultimately replace the feel judged-because they are: how the government can do best by sim­ existing public one, perhaps with a fleet of Out on Valencia Street, Olague took ply getting out of the way." (Unfortu­ Google's driverless cars. That, however, me past an eyeglass boutique that had re­ nately, as Newsom notes, San Francisco's would mean no fist bwnp. placed a bookstore and, in the twin bays "budget crunch means the city hasn't yet of a vanished auto-body shop, two arti­ bought the iPads needed to fully imple­ an Francisco is becoming a city with­ sanal establishments: one made pastries, ment the app.") Ifinnovation put the pub­ Sout a n1iddle class. Pockets ofintense the other chocolate. On the wall of the lic-transportation system in San Francisco poverty, in districts like the Fillmore and pastry shop, there were quotes that ap­ out of business, Newsom said, "I'm not the Tenderloin, are increasingly isolated pealed to the customers' idea oftheir jobs inherendy offended by that notion." Page within the general rise of exorbitantly as inspirational callings, including one and Brin, ofGoogle, have led him to priced housing. The black population has from Saint-Exup6y. "Ifyou want to build dUnk that the company's emerging fleet dwindled from more than ten per cent of a ship don't gather people together to col­ of driverless cars might make long-term the electorate, in 1970, to less than four lect wood and don't assign them tasks and spending on high-speed rail in California per cent today-that's not enough people work but rather teach them to long for the irrelevant. to fill the forty thousand seats at A.T.&T. endless immensity of the sea." In all the Near the Caltrain station south of Park, where the Giants play. The num­ new restaurants, the menus highlighted Market Street, a twenty-nine-year-old ber of Latinos is increasing much more locally sourced food. "But where are the entrepreneur named Logan Green is try­ slowly than elsewhere in California. Rent local people?" Olague said. A few un­ ing to realize somed1ing like this vision. control and other features ofthe city's tra­ marked doors led up to S.R.O. hotels, Green grew up in Southern California ditionalliberalism still hold in check protected by the city's affordable-housing and attended the University ofCalifornia a mass exodus of all San Franciscans ordinances, where immigrant families at Santa Barbara, where he decided to get who don't work in tech, but it's com­ squeezed into one room. But no one on by without a car, so that the inconve­ mon to hear stories ofworking families the sidewalk was speaking Spa11ish. nience would force him to find creative pushed south, into Bayview or Daly City, In the past few years, San F'ran cisco's

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an agglomeration of wealth, then it won't be win-win-win, and there could be a backlash."

ne question for technology boost­ Oers-maybe the crucial one-is why, during the decades of the personal computer and the Internet, the American economy has grown so slowly, average wages have stagnated, the middle class has been hollowed out, and inequality has surged. Why has a revolution that is sup­ posed to be as historically important as the industrial revolution coincided with ape­ riod ofbroader economic decline? I posed the question in one form or another to ev­ eryone I talked to in the Bay Area. The answers became a measure ofhow people in the technology industry think about the world beyond it. Few ofthem had given the topic much consideration. One young teclue won­ "Audit him- but make it look like an accident. " dered ifit was really true; another said that the problem was a shortage of trained software engineers; a third noted that the focus of the tech industry was shifting political leaders have grown close to the and he did two things for the tech com­ from engineering to design, and sug­ technology companies. Corey Cook, a munity: he stopped the private com­ gested that this would open up new job political scientist at the University of San panies' stock-option tax, and he kept opportunities. Sam Lessin, who leads Francisco, who focusses on local politics, Twitter in San Francisco ." Conway also Facebook's "identity product group," said, "The dominant narrative ofthe city spent money to help a challenger take which is in charge of the social network's is What's good for the tech industry is Olague's seat on the Board of Supervi­ Timeline feature, posited that traditional good for San Francisco.' " Historically, he sors. (Olague was considered an obsta­ measures ofwealth might not be applica­ said, what was good for General Motors cle to development projects.) Once in ble in the era ofsocial media. He said, "1 wasn't always good for the country: there office, Mayor Lee intervened in regula­ think as communication technology gets was conflict between business and labor, tory matters in ways that benefitted two less expensive, and people can entertain which was resolved by insuring that facto­ companies in which Conway is a major each other and interact with each other ries offered middle-class jobs. He added, investor. Conway is involved in Zucker­ and do things for each other much more "Now there's no conflict, but there are no berg's immigration-reform group, and efficiently, what's actually going to hap­ middle-class jobs." after the Newtown massacre he enlisted pen is that the percentage ofthe economy In 2011, Twitter, whose San Fran­ members ofsf.citi in a campaign against that's in cash is going to decline. Some cisco headquarters employs a thousand gun violence. But the main purpose of people will choose to build social capital people but draws tourists from around the sfciti is to persuade the city government rather than financial capital. Given the world- the company turns them away-­ to make policies that benefit the tech­ opportwuty to spend an extra hour or an threatened to move out ofthe city. Liberal nology industry. When I asked Conway extra dollar, they will choose to spend candidates in the mayoral election lined if sf.citi's interests might ever diverge time with friends. 1t might be that the up to offer the company tax breaks, and from the general public's, he couldn't G.D.P., in the broader sense, is actually called existing taxes "job killers." Cook think how they might. The handshake growing quite quickly--it's just that we're said, sardonically, "It's Twitter! Twitter between the industry and City Hall is so not measuring it properly." has to be in San Francisco." There was far strong that people in San Francisco in­ We were talking in a Facebookconfer­ less concern at City Hall when, in 2006, sisted on going offthe record before say­ ence room. Posters on nearby walls bore the 49ers announced their intention to ing that Lee has made himself look like the messages "Keep Shipping'' and "What move to Santa Clara. Conway's man. Would You Do IfYou Weren't Afraid?" Newsom's successor, Ed Lee, was Cook predicted that if, with the tech Lessin, wearing a green T-s hin and jeans, elected with the support ofa technology industry's money and competence, with a baseball cap that had "/Iessin" on investor named Ron Conway, who or­ schools improved and buses ran on time the front, spoke very quickly while draw­ !,

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tech rising fastest, social not far behind, sisted that anything he said about the In this view, he explained, "it's tf-te best and and cash starting to lag. Lessin was a company had to be off the record, in­ the brightest who have succeeded here." classmate ofZuckerberg's at Harvard. His cluding the tides and the content of the Kapor and his wife, Freada, now run a late father was a prominent investment courses he teaches. When I asked how he foundation, in Oakland, that seeks to banker, and Lessin grew up in a New Jer­ viewed the relation between the informa­ make the benefits of technology more sey suburb where he understood the adult tion revolution and inequality, he hesi­ equally available. Kapor said that asking world through the filter of "Seinfeld." tated. He started to answer, then hesi­ questions about the lack ofracial and gen­ This led him to formulate the Kramer tated again: "Um. I don't have any deep der diversity in tech companies leaves peo­ Principle: nearly all the annoyances that thoughts about it. I wish I did." This ple in Silicon Valley intensely uncomfort­ gave the show its jokes-the time wasted seemed surprising, since Cohen, an ex­ able. For example, only eight per cent of trying to track down a friend, the in­ pert on democracy and justice, co-edited venture-backed tech start-ups are owned efficiencies that lead to ridiculous mis­ a book called "The New Inequality," in by women, and, in a region where His­ understandings-had been "kind of the late nineties, before it was a hot topic, panics make up nearly a quarter of the erased." He said, "Most ofthose problems and has devoted many pages of Boston working-age population, they constitute are now gone because of smartphones, Review to the subject. I had imagined less than five per cent ofemployees in large G.P.S., traffic maps, texting, messaging. that his perch at Apple University would tech companies; the representation of That's a huge deal. That's moving the ball give him the perfect vantage point to both Hispanics and blacks is actually de­ forward-making people more efficient think about just this problem. Later, I clining. People in Silicon Valley may be with their time and able to effectively live wondered if the question had put Cohen the only Americans who don't like to ad­ longer lives therefore, you know, and on the defensive. It was Steve Jobs, after vettise the fact ifthey come from humble making them happier." Lessin found it all, who told President Obama that Ap­ backgrounds. According to Kapor, they impossible to believe that people's lives ple's manufacturing jobs would not be would then have to admit that someone had not improved since the days of "Sein­ coming back from China. Apple's posi­ helped them along the way, which goes feld," because oftechno logy. tion on issues like inequality was ex­ against the Valley's self-image. Not everyone in Silicon Valley is so san­ pressed last year by an executive who said, T he young start-up entrepreneur in­ guine. Joshua Cohen, the Stanford politi­ "We don't have an obligation to solve sisted that a person's race, gender, or class cal philosopher, founded Stanford's Pro­ America's problems. Our only obligation 'just doesn't matter here. It's not a positive gram on Global Justice, where he has done is making the best product possible." or a negative. What's cool here is having a research on how the supply chains of cor­ lot ofmoney-everybody knows you have porate products can be improved in the ne obstacle in Silicon Valley to a lot of money, but you don't !how it off. areas offair compensation, working condi­ Othinking about conditions in the rest Money is the metric by which people view tions, and the right of workers to organize. of the country is the tech world's belief in and judge success, but, unlike in Holly­ Since 2011, Cohen has also been a half­ itselfas a meritocracy. ''Not an aspirational wood or New York, you have to be very time professor at Apple University, down meritocracy but an actual one," Mitch careful about how you spend that money." the street from Apple's headquarters, which Kapor, who founded the software com­ The way to convey status in Silicon Valley offers courses to its executives on company pany Lotus, in the early eighties, told me. is by wearing jeans, driving a Tesla, and culture and related topics. According to "'nside Apple," by Adam Lashinsky, one course focussed on "the fallen grocery store chain A&P as an example of what hap­ pened to a company that once dominated its field ." The classrooms-sleek and white, like the company's devices, with huge black screens at the front-bear names that span the social sciences and the literature of hipness: "Margaret Mead," ''Tocqueville," "Kerouac," "Pirsig." In his office, Cohen freely criticized the tech industry for its casual optimism in as­ suming that its products can change the world. He said, ''There is this complete horseshit attitude, this ridiculous attitude out here, that if it's new and different it must be really good, and there must be some new way of solving problems that avoids the old limitations, the roadblocks. And with a soup~on of 'We're smarter than everybody else.' It's total nonsense." But, when it came to Apple, he in- Tm allergic to penicillin- is there penicillin in the salad?"

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casually mentioning that you were hired at like everybody's fake happy all the time." industries-they tend to come from ed­ Facebook in 2005 and invested in Twitter One day, I dropped by the offices ofa ucated families and top universities, in 2008. But, as the wealth reaches spec­ start-up company called Delphi, just and achieve success at a very early age. tacular levels, these self-conscious re­ down the road from Google, in Moun­ "They're ignorant, because many ofthem straints are breaking down amid displays of tain View. Delphi makes software that al­ don't feel the need to educate themselves hedge-fund-level decadence. Last June, lows cities to put large amounts of outside their little world, and they're not David Sacks, a former PayPal executive financial data online for public use. Two rewarded for doing so," the young start­ who founded Yammer, a social network of its founders are Nate Levine, who is up entrepreneur said. "Ifyou're an engi­ for businesses, threw himself a fortieth­ twenty-two, and Zac Bookman, who is neer in Silicon Valley, you have no in­ birthday party, in a Los Angeles chateau, thirty-three. They had just ordered pizza centive to read The Economist. It's not that was rumored to have cost $1.4 mil­ for lunch, and they seemed to be all but brought up at parties, your friends aren't lion; the theme was "Let Him Eat Cake," sleeping at the company. In a spare room, going to talk about it, your employers with attendees dressed in Louis XVI cos­ there was an austere metal bunk bed. don't care." He found that college friends tumes, and entertainment by Snoop Dogg. Levine, still working toward a degree who came out to the Valley to seek their (Sacks, forgetting what kind of world he in electrical engineering at Stanford, fortune subsequently lost interest in the and his friends have created, ordered his mentioned that he had graduated from wider world. "People witl1 whom I used several hundred guests not to share any of Gunn High School, in Palo Alto; I also to talk about politics or policy or the arts, this on social media. The first picture from graduated from there, in 1978. Since they're just not as into it anymore. They the party was tweeted by Snoop.) Soon then, the percentage ofblack and Latino don't read the Wall Street Journal or the after his birthday bash, Sacks sold Yam mer students has dwindled, the Asian popu­ New York Times. They read Tech Crunch to Microsoft, then bought a twenty-mil­ lation has grown, and income levels have and VentureBeat, and maybe they happen lion-dollar fixer-upper in Pacific Heights. risen, as Palo Alto has become one ofthe to see something from the Times on When l interviewed him, two years ago, country's most expensive communities. somebody's Facebook news feed ." He Sacks said, "Part ofbelieving in capitalism According to Levine, families move went on, "The divide among people in is you don't have to feel guilty about want­ across the ocean to send their children to my generation is not as much between ing to make money." Not to be outdone, Gunn, where the competition to get into tradi tiona! liberals and libertarians. It's a Sean Parker is reportedly spending at least a good college is so intense that students divide between people who are inward­ nine million dollars for his upcoming wed­ struggle to inflate their grade-point aver­ facing and outward-facing." ding, in Big Sur. ages above 4.0 while piling on as many The more successful and wealthy en­ The ideal of a frictionless world, in extracurriculars as possible. trepreneurs become, the more they can which technology is a force for progress as "It became a very stressful environ­ afford to face outward. Reid Hoffinan, of well as a source of wealth, leaves out the ment," Levine said. "I don't know ifyou Linkedln, who published a book last year filet that politics inevitably means clashing knew about the suicides." called 'The Start-Up ofYou," is regarded interests, with winners and losers. Silicon Over a period of several months in as one ofthe Valley's leading public voices, Valley tends to ignore even its own version 2009, the year Levine graduated, five although, until recently, his political en­ ofconflict: beneath its much popularized Gutul students jumped in front ofa com­ gagement had been limited to campaign stories ofaspiration and success is a neth­ muter train at the same Palo Alto cross­ contributions. Hoffinan described Silicon erworld ofruthless struggle that punishes ing. One girl died a few days before grad­ Valley's intellectual culture as underdevel­ more people than it re­ uating, Levine told me, oped. Part of the problem, he said, is the wards. "This is one of the having got into her first­ competitiveness, which requires an un­ things nobody talks about in choice collet,>e. A number of yielding focus on one's company, and the Valley," Andreessen told other attempts were stopped "part of it is because of that libertarian me. Trying to get a start­ by a guard who was posted strain- we're just all out building stuff, up off the ground is "abso­ at the spot. Levine described and everything else is kind ofextra neous." lutely terrifYing. Everything - the culture ofa school and a Hoffman says that when he was a Stan­ is against you." Many young - community in which great ford undergraduate, in the late eighties, people wilt under the pres­ - expectations are placed on his only concern was "how dol strengthen sure. As a venture capital­ people at a young age: '1 felt public intellectual culture in the U.S.: who ist, he hears pitches from it. When you're fourteen or are we as individuals and a society, and three thousand people a year and funds thirteen, you realize that you're expected who should we be'" But he decided that just twenty of them. "Our day job is to go to a good school. And then the Sil­ the academic life would have too small a saying no to entrepreneurs and crush­ icon Vall .ey pressure, you feel this at Stan­ platform, and he became an Internet bil­ ing their dreams," he said. Meanwhile, ford, too. You get in as a freshman, and lionaire instead. When Linkedln was in "every entrepreneur has to pretend in you're expected to start a fifty-million­ its early stages, a decade ago, Hoffman every interaction that everything is going dollar company. And I know a lot ofpeo­ went a few years without reading a single great. Every party you go to, every re­ ple who are, I would argue, in not great book. Now in his mid-forties, he wants to cruiter, every press interview-'Oh, every­ mental states." make Silicon Valley a more reflective thing's fantastic!'-and, inside, your soul is Young people drawn to Silicon Valley place, and increase its influence around just being chewed apart, right? It's sort of can be more insular than those in other the country and the world. He has started

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a monthly salon, flying in authors of new books on public affuirs to talk with small groups of tech people, over dinner at a top-rated French restaurant in Palo Alto. "One of the things that were getting is, like, 'I'm really glad I read that book, and I haven't read a book in a year,' " Hoffman said. His next guest is sched­ uled to be Steven Johnson, the author of "Future Perfect."

ark Zuckerberg, in his op-ed an­ M nouncing FWD.us, wrote, "In a knowledge economy, the most important resources are the talented people we edu­ cate and attract to our country. A knowl­ edge economy can scale further, create better jobs, and provide a higher quality of living for everyone in our nation." Zuckerberg described himself as the great-grandson of immigrants, and the beneficiary of national policies that have created equal opportunity and upward mobility across generations. "Everyone in FWD.us hopes it will go beyond immigration, over time," Reid "I appreciate couples therapy, but I can't stop Hoffinan said. Other possible issues in­ fontasizing about group therapy." clude education reform and spending on scientific research. "But, as with an entre­ preneurial start-up, if we can't demon­ strate that we can do something good also learn the limits of their power and struction and other values to get a few about this problem, then what use are we influence. l think it's healthy that they've engineers hired & get immigration re­ to the other ones?" decided to branch out and actually get in­ form?" Some early members of the Like industries that preceded it, Silicon volved in the political process the way that group-David Sacks, ofYammer; Elon Valley is not a philosophy, a revolution, or other industries and corporations do." Musk, ofTesla Motors-have with­ a cause. It's a group of powerful corpora­ FWD.us has got offto a rough start­ drawn. Amid the uproar, Zuckerberg tions and wealthy individuals with their rougher than Facebook did. Rather than and Green have been silent. own well-guarded interests. Sometimes bringing fresh ideas to the project oforga­ The South Carolina ad began airing in those interests can be aligned with the pub­ rt.izing Americans and their elected lead­ late April. It was made by a FWD.us shell lic's, sometimes not. Though tech compa­ ers behind inunigration reform, the group organization called Americans for a Con­ nies promote an open and connected has hired veteran Washington operatives servative Direction. Crude graphics are world, they are extremely secretive, pre­ from both patties, who, following their combined with footage ofGraham attack­ venting outsiders from learning the most standard practice, are spending Silicon ing Obama. " 'Change you can believe in,' basic facts about their internal workint,>S. Valley money on harsh and cynical polit­ after this health-care-bill debacle, has now Marc Andreessen predicted that conflicts ical ads. The campaign attempts to bolster become an empty slogan," he says. "And over issues like privacy, intellectual prop­ politicians who support immigration re­ it's really been replaoed by seedy Chicago erty, and monopolies will bring a period of form even though they represent states politics, when you think about it." The ad increased tension between the Valley and where the idea is unpopular. One ad, in­ doesn't embody the spirit of"innovation" other sectors of society, along with new tended to cover Senator Lindsey Gra­ or of "disruption." But if Silicon Valley's government intervention. Brian Gold­ ham's right flank, in South Carolina, at­ idea of itself as a force for irresistible smith, who has known Green since college, tacks Obamis health-care law; another, progress is running up against the unlovely and who now runs an online investment on behalf of Mark Begich, the Alaska reality of current American politics, that start-up called Pub Vest, said, "If this new senator, endorses oil drilling and a natu­ isn't necessarily a bad thing. It might mean generation of smart, wealthy, successful ral-gas pipeline there. that the industry is growing up. + tech leaders want to make a difference This first high-profile foray into hard­ in terms of policy, it's the right idea to ball national politics has upset a num­ leave their cool headquarters and gorgeous ber ofpeople in Silicon Valley. The ven­ NEWYORKER.COM/GO/OUTLOUD campuses and actually engage. They have ture capitalist Vinod Khosla tweeted, A conversation with Ken Auletta and George a lot to bring to the table, and they may "Will FvVD.us prostitute climate de- Packer.

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