[Script] The Sins of Silicon Valley - Act 1, Scene 8 (Continued)

 [Images of Bezos, Musk and others brazen displays of wealth including mansions etc]

VO: When computers went mainstream in the 80’s, Wall Street made a lot of money.  When the internet came along in the 90’s, they made a lot more money.  When smart phones and social media came on board in the new millennium, they made obscene amounts of money.  As the valley moves fast and breaks things, old obsolete ways of doing business are set by the wayside but they expect the government (ie us, the public) to clean up the damage.  Sound familiar?

[Images of Cocaine Cowboys and the Wolf of Wallstreet]

VO: When the technology companies exist to exploit people for the 1%, then you end up with massive exploitation where citizens are the product.  The greatest gains with risky short cuts end up causing massive damage with little thought for the consequences.

[Images of Global Warming and Climate Change]

VO: Sound familiar? Oil companies rape the planet for its natural resources, knowing forty years ahead of almost everyone else how much damage they are doing and just like Big Tabaco they deny deny deny and buy congress.  The tech companies love to project an image of slick glass, gleaming consoles and social responsibility with progressive internal policies and carbon neutral data centers.

[Image of Pinocchio]

VO: But…it's kind of a lie.  As said, the tech companies do do a lot of good, make a lot of lives better, but they conspired together to keep the pay of their employees low and prevent them from unioninzing.  And while it is wonderful that their data centers are carbon neutral, there is still a carbon cost for the use they cause and the products they make.  So much good and so much cost.  

[Images of Technoutopia]

VO: One of the worst problems of all is the steady rate of robotization.  These technologies will slowly take more and more people’s jobs, jobs that many thought impossible to automate like managers, financial advisors, artists, writers and many more.  The very definition of human labor is going to change, and what solution do the dark lords of the valley propose?  Universal Basic Income.  But they fight unionization tooth and nail.

[Images of Billionare Boondoggles]

VO: No, the worst problem of all is the obscene wealth these miracles create and how disconnected they are from what people need.  Inflation, unemployment, fascism, depression, addiction, incitement to violence and the breakage of family and friends.  Rockets, planes, trains, drill machine, cave submarines, cars, flying cars, cars in space….nothing is wrong with having a dream and making it happen…

[Images of Ivory Towers]

VO: But like something out of a fantasy novel, they sit in their ivory towers, craftering wonders and dispersing them like cake to the plebians below.  And this disconnect is toxic and the temptation for more and more wealth disconnects them even more; what happens when their wonders lead to even more dangerous technologies like sapient digital intelligence, scalable nanotechnology, or a mind machine interface that can write to and therefore redefine the human mind?