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What a strange thing to pin on tech. Company towns have existed forever, to the point of having laws made about how they can function. Walt Disney and ford also

What a strange thing to pin on tech. Company towns have existed forever, to the point of having laws made about how they can function. Walt Disney and ford also wanted to create a utopia city. I think this is more of a rich man's hobby than anything related to tech moguls at all. Hell, some even establish their own currency https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip#Coal_company_scrip https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip#Coal_company_s...

atlasunshrugged 6y ago
Not to mention the government mandated cities and folks like Le Corbusier! I think the vast majority of current new city developments are government mandated (e.g. Neom, Egypts new administrative capital, many new projects going up in China, etc.)
pessimizer 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neom
saalweachter 6y ago
New Harmony, Indiana was the site of two successive utopian communities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Harmony,_Indiana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Harmony,_Indiana The Rappites were a religious/grass roots organization, but after they failed the town was bought by Robert Owen, an industrialist who wanted to design a utopian community. A lot people think they know how society should be run; the rich ones just have the power to force other people to play along with them for awhile.
conjectures 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournville https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournville
rjsw 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Sunlight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Sunlight
- thatguy0900 6y ago
  "It would not do you much good if you send it down your throats in the form of bottles of whisky, bags of sweets, or fat geese at Christmas. On the other hand, if you leave the money with me, I shall use it to provide for you everything that makes life pleasant – nice houses, comfortable homes, and healthy recreation." wow, what a quote. I feel like this really perfectly encapsulates the attitude behind projects like this.
fennecfoxen 6y ago
Utopian designs are not just for tech moguls, they're for anyone powerful who wants to reshape society from the top down. But we don't have as many dictators these days, and tech is the hot sector where the money and influence is found.
- Dracophoenix 6y ago
  You mean like every religious and mythological belief system since the dawn of civilization? I'd even argue every individual wants to and does (albeit in small steps) reshape society from the top of whatever rung they're on.
ardy42 6y ago
> What a strange thing to pin on tech. Company towns have existed forever, to the point of having laws made about how they can function. The idea of building a utopian city doesn't need to be a brand new thing for tech moguls to have a greater interest in creating them than other types of contemporary moguls. Also, I don't think a company town is really the same thing as a utopian city. In my mind a "company town" is mainly an attempt to maximize exploitation of a set of workers, while a "utopian city" is built as a pure expression of some subset of someone's ideals, relatively unsullied by competing ideas, which usually aren't so crass as "maximal exploitation of the residents."
- thatguy0900 6y ago
  They dont really seem too, though. Theres a lot of examples of rich people building towns even in these comments. Is there any evidence tech moguls do it any more frequently? As I said, company towns were so common large parts of them were outlawed. You can say alot of those were primarily predatory attempts to make money off workers, but no way a decent portion werent also a bored ceo trying to make a pet project dream town.
  - ardy42 6y ago
    > They dont really seem too, though. Theres a lot of examples of rich people building towns even in these comments. Is there any evidence tech moguls do it any more frequently? The OP didn't really establish it (e.g. take an inventory of all Americans building utopian cities, and see if tech moguls are over-represented), but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. The combination of experience with disruptive innovation, engineer's syndrome, and power would seem like a recipe for these kinds of cities, though a less productive one than near-absolute power over some polity. Also, a lot of the towns mentioned in the comments pre-date tech moguls.
    - thatguy0900 6y ago
      >Also, a lot of the towns mentioned in the comments pre-date tech moguls. That's kind of what I'm saying. Rich people making their own dream cities is probably as old as rich people and cities. Ig I could see an explosion of home automation tech giving more people a reason to try, though

atlasunshrugged 6y ago

Not to mention the government mandated cities and folks like Le Corbusier! I think the vast majority of current new city developments are government mandated (e.g. Neom, Egypts new administrative capital, many new projects going up in China, etc.)

pessimizer 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neom

saalweachter 6y ago

New Harmony, Indiana was the site of two successive utopian communities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Harmony,_Indiana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Harmony,_Indiana The Rappites were a religious/grass roots organization, but after they failed the town was bought by Robert Owen, an industrialist who wanted to design a utopian community. A lot people think they know how society should be run; the rich ones just have the power to force other people to play along with them for awhile.

conjectures 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournville https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournville

rjsw 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Sunlight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Sunlight

thatguy0900 6y ago
"It would not do you much good if you send it down your throats in the form of bottles of whisky, bags of sweets, or fat geese at Christmas. On the other hand, if you leave the money with me, I shall use it to provide for you everything that makes life pleasant – nice houses, comfortable homes, and healthy recreation." wow, what a quote. I feel like this really perfectly encapsulates the attitude behind projects like this.

fennecfoxen 6y ago

Utopian designs are not just for tech moguls, they're for anyone powerful who wants to reshape society from the top down. But we don't have as many dictators these days, and tech is the hot sector where the money and influence is found.

Dracophoenix 6y ago
You mean like every religious and mythological belief system since the dawn of civilization? I'd even argue every individual wants to and does (albeit in small steps) reshape society from the top of whatever rung they're on.

ardy42 6y ago

> What a strange thing to pin on tech. Company towns have existed forever, to the point of having laws made about how they can function. The idea of building a utopian city doesn't need to be a brand new thing for tech moguls to have a greater interest in creating them than other types of contemporary moguls. Also, I don't think a company town is really the same thing as a utopian city. In my mind a "company town" is mainly an attempt to maximize exploitation of a set of workers, while a "utopian city" is built as a pure expression of some subset of someone's ideals, relatively unsullied by competing ideas, which usually aren't so crass as "maximal exploitation of the residents."

thatguy0900 6y ago
They dont really seem too, though. Theres a lot of examples of rich people building towns even in these comments. Is there any evidence tech moguls do it any more frequently? As I said, company towns were so common large parts of them were outlawed. You can say alot of those were primarily predatory attempts to make money off workers, but no way a decent portion werent also a bored ceo trying to make a pet project dream town.
- ardy42 6y ago
  > They dont really seem too, though. Theres a lot of examples of rich people building towns even in these comments. Is there any evidence tech moguls do it any more frequently? The OP didn't really establish it (e.g. take an inventory of all Americans building utopian cities, and see if tech moguls are over-represented), but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. The combination of experience with disruptive innovation, engineer's syndrome, and power would seem like a recipe for these kinds of cities, though a less productive one than near-absolute power over some polity. Also, a lot of the towns mentioned in the comments pre-date tech moguls.
  - thatguy0900 6y ago
    >Also, a lot of the towns mentioned in the comments pre-date tech moguls. That's kind of what I'm saying. Rich people making their own dream cities is probably as old as rich people and cities. Ig I could see an explosion of home automation tech giving more people a reason to try, though