Technologist Spells Out Plan for Silicon Valley to Secede from U.S.

[mota bhai 2,675]

Imagine a technologically advanced Elysium-type community here on earth, a Silicon Valley enclave where everyone sports Google Glass, people jet around in self-driving cars and robot servants run errands.

That’s the vision espoused by Stanford lecturer and Wired contributor Balaji Srinivasan, who wants to create a community within the United States free from federal and state rule.

It’s a separate society he calls the “Inverse Amish.”

He posted this last week to explain:

Just like the Amish live nearby, peacefully, in the past—imagine a society of Inverse Amish that lives nearby, peacefully, in the future. …where self-driving cars and delivery drones aren’t restricted by law, and where we can experiment with new technologies *without* causing undue disruption to others.Think of this like a Special Innovation Zone similar to the Special Economic Zones that Deng Xiaoping used to allow China to experiment with capitalism in a controlled way.

9) In sum: I believe that regulations exist for a reason. And I believe that new technologies will keep coming up against existing rulesets. I don’t believe the solution is either to change the rulesets (which, again, exist for a reason) OR to give up on new technology. I think instead we need a third solution: a way to exit (whether to the cloud for purely digital technologies, or to a Special Innovation Zone or ultimately a startup nation), prove/disprove these new technologies among a self-selected, opt-in group of risk-tolerant early adopters, and report back to the mothership on what works and what doesn’t.

There’s no mention of who will police these eccentric, free-thinking inverse Amish, pave their roads, maintain infrastructure and build their homes. Maybe everything will be automated, children taught by computerized lessons and grunt work performed by blue-collar robots. Maybe this separatist Galt’s Gulch getaway will outsource manual labor to commoners in the U.S. to free up its resident intellectuals to invent more delivery drones and ride-sharing apps.

...

Silicon Valley types love to dream about a future as a separate state, which is hypocritical given that the federal government has long poured billions of taxpayer dollars into kickstarting innovation in the valley. Take a look at this Mother Jones timeline to see how tech companies like Tesla and Apple have benefitted from government subsidies.

http://www.sv411.com/index.php/2014/01/technologist-spells-out-plan-for-silicon-valley-tosecede-from-us/

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

You'd think those employees would be a little smarter.

[mota bhai 2,675]

I like his use of the term rulesets. Because regulations are just like firewalls.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

I like his use of the term rulesets. Because regulations are just like firewalls.

I liked that the author wrote: There’s no mention of who will police these eccentric, free-thinking inverse Amish, pave their roads, maintain infrastructure and build their homes. Maybe everything will be automated, children taught by computerized lessons and grunt work performed by blue-collar robots.

I lived in a town for a while that had no place for blue-collar workers. They were all pushed out to somewhere else. The world really needs janitors.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Harpa Timsah

[GandD 5,966]

I like his use of the term rulesets. Because regulations are just like firewalls.

Someone needs to write more rules.......

[Darnell 8,478]

Imagine a technologically advanced Elysium-type community here on earth, a Silicon Valley enclave where everyone sports Google Glass, people jet around in self-driving cars and robot servants run errands.

That’s the vision espoused by Stanford lecturer and Wired contributor Balaji Srinivasan, who wants to create a community within the United States free from federal and state rule.

It’s a separate society he calls the “Inverse Amish.”

He posted this last week to explain:

Just like the Amish live nearby, peacefully, in the past—imagine a society of Inverse Amish that lives nearby, peacefully, in the future. …where self-driving cars and delivery drones aren’t restricted by law, and where we can experiment with new technologies *without* causing undue disruption to others.Think of this like a Special Innovation Zone similar to the Special Economic Zones that Deng Xiaoping used to allow China to experiment with capitalism in a controlled way.

9) In sum: I believe that regulations exist for a reason. And I believe that new technologies will keep coming up against existing rulesets. I don’t believe the solution is either to change the rulesets (which, again, exist for a reason) OR to give up on new technology. I think instead we need a third solution: a way to exit (whether to the cloud for purely digital technologies, or to a Special Innovation Zone or ultimately a startup nation), prove/disprove these new technologies among a self-selected, opt-in group of risk-tolerant early adopters, and report back to the mothership on what works and what doesn’t.

There’s no mention of who will police these eccentric, free-thinking inverse Amish, pave their roads, maintain infrastructure and build their homes. Maybe everything will be automated, children taught by computerized lessons and grunt work performed by blue-collar robots. Maybe this separatist Galt’s Gulch getaway will outsource manual labor to commoners in the U.S. to free up its resident intellectuals to invent more delivery drones and ride-sharing apps.

...

Silicon Valley types love to dream about a future as a separate state, which is hypocritical given that the federal government has long poured billions of taxpayer dollars into kickstarting innovation in the valley. Take a look at this Mother Jones timeline to see how tech companies like Tesla and Apple have benefitted from government subsidies.

http://www.sv411.com/index.php/2014/01/technologist-spells-out-plan-for-silicon-valley-tosecede-from-us/

IMO, he's one of the poster-children for why the foreign students should be excluded from H1-Bs for a 20 year period before returning to the USA.

I note I'm two steps away from spewing ethnic stuff, AraJit, so I'll just stop here.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

[mota bhai 2,675]

Don't let me stop you. I'd rather you let the mods do it, O Darnell.

[Ban Hammer 13,395]

Don't let me stop you. I'd rather you let the mods do it, O Darnell.

copy that, ban hammer 1 in holding pattern orbit, awaiting target id by laser.

[GandD 5,966]

The hammer is a hammer/axe combo? Wow

[mota bhai 2,675]

VJ mods, they don't f### around.