Tyranny of broligarchs

Tech bros are the new Pharaohs and modern-day czars in the digital age. They are the self-appointed guardians of public trust, gatekeepers to corporate culture and thought. Tech billionaires are creating a world where the rich wax, the middle-class wanes and the poor live in hard-scrabble conditions

In his much-celebrated book, The Third Wave, futurist Alvin Toffler describes technology as "the dawn of a new civilisation". Technology has made great strides, solving many of our problems. Technology has also been part of the knowledge production system and institutions. Today, we not only use technology, we live technology.

But technology is not created in a vacuum. It is not a one-click solution either. What is worrying is the geopolitics of the big tech. High-tech has come to signify high politics too. Experience suggests that digital and tech advancements are geopolitical issues of the highest order. When technology is created, it is built with the developers' worldviews, values, beliefs and assumptions.

Today, the new plutocrats of Silicon Valley are working like predatory wolves. Must we be surprised when America's high-tech czars led by Elon Musk should be taking the country towards what Japanese economist Taichi Sakaiya called "a high-tech Middle Ages?"

How has the US, the world's high-tech leader, come to such a stage? Why is the American dream cracking? The answer is obvious. The economy in the "land of the dream" has become global but politics hasn't. No wonder therefore, French sociologist Jean Baudrillard should describe the US as a land of "utopia achieved." If you "get out of your car in this centrifugal metropolis, you immediately become a delinquent; as soon as you start walking, you are a threat to public order, like a dog wandering in the road."