1/ A longtime Wired editor just wrote a mush-brained essay about how he totally missed the political rot of Silicon Valley (& still doesn't get it). But in the late 1990s, a Wired journalist warned of a toxic ideology bubbling up from tech. Paulina Borsook has largely been erased. Let's change that
2/ In 2001, Borsook said tech "libertarianism" reflected an adolescent mindset, with a craving for unchecked independence & resistance to constraint. She warned that tech libertarians wanted an anti-human world that worked more like a computer. From "Cyberselfish," a book based on her 90s writing:
3/ Tech fascism in a nutshell: “Computers are so much more rule-based, controllable, fixable, and comprehensible than any human will ever be. As many political schools of thought do, these technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect.“ She wrote this in 2000!
4/ Borsook divided the tech ”libertarians” into two main types: the Ravers and the Gilders. The Ravers are the ones who go to Burning Man and project countercultural ideas. The Gilders are the Peter Thiel types, more overtly focused on money and power. But they are birds of a feather.
5/ Borsook warned that “cypherpunk” paranoia about government intrusion was leading them to create “a society where there is ever more surveillance and computer-retrievable information about people's private lives.” Sound familiar?
6/ Borsook described “paranoid” anti-government rantings and a tech libertarian culture in which the “gestalt is of testosterone-poisoned guys with chips on their shoulders and too much time on their hands.” And soon, these guys would morph into multi-billionaires...
7/ During a decade in which the USA's favorite “tech critics” were busy shining the shoes of people like Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel, Borsook saw very clearly where things were headed. Because these things were obvious by the late 90s, at least to journalists like Borsook.
8/ Unfortunately, “Cyberselfish“ predicted the future but did not sell well. Borsook's writing career hit the rocks as tech fortunes skyrocketed astronomically in the 2000s. She is now elderly, disabled and struggling to survive as the rest of the world finds out what she knew a long time ago.
9/ I had launch with Paulina Borsook last month in Oakland. Her life is hard, but she still has a lot to say! She's trying to raise funds to get a new version of the book reissued on the Internet Archive. Some of her friends have a running GoFundMe to support her: www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...
10/ Instead of centering men who missed the boat (and still don't seem to get it), let's lift up the work of Paulina Borsook, who saw it all very clearly and tried to warn us 25 years ago. Someone should do a profile of her very interesting life. And hey, let's drop some cash into her GoFundme!
13/ Paulina will definitely be in my book, but she deserves proper recognition in a major publication profile. I would do it, but I am writing a book. Someone should be beat me to it! I came across her work in the first chapter of the late David Golumbia's "Cyberlibertarianism."
Thank you for this thread! Even the preview of In|Formation hits hard: "Every day, computers are making people easier to use."
Exactly this. Computers have seized to be the tools which humans use. Instead, they've become a way to only give us exactly the information, rights and means to partake in those billionaire's enrichment as tools ourselves.
I watched your interview of her. She’s an amazing person. I don’t recall if her book is being republished or if you had said you hope that it would be.
Gil Durán
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Gil Durán
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Gil Durán
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in reply to Gil Durán • • •9/ I had launch with Paulina Borsook last month in Oakland. Her life is hard, but she still has a lot to say! She's trying to raise funds to get a new version of the book reissued on the Internet Archive. Some of her friends have a running GoFundMe to support her: www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...
Donate to Help Paulina Borsook...
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GhostOnTheHalfShell
in reply to Gil Durán • • •@pluralistic ?
Perhaps with your visibility, you could give her a boost.
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Gil Durán
2025-09-24 18:36:15
Gil Durán
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in reply to Gil Durán • • •14/ She recently helped launch a new magazine, In|Formation, and wrote some pieces. informationmagazine.com
In Formation Magazine
In Formation Magazine
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lj·rk
in reply to Gil Durán • • •Thank you for this thread! Even the preview of In|Formation hits hard: "Every day, computers are making people easier to use."
Exactly this. Computers have seized to be the tools which humans use. Instead, they've become a way to only give us exactly the information, rights and means to partake in those billionaire's enrichment as tools ourselves.
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GhostOnTheHalfShell
in reply to Gil Durán • • •I watched your interview of her. She’s an amazing person. I don’t recall if her book is being republished or if you had said you hope that it would be.
It definitely should or must be.