I enjoy seeing these introspective posts and hope they become prevalent among technical people all over the world. What technical people need to understand is t

I enjoy seeing these introspective posts and hope they become prevalent among technical people all over the world. What technical people need to understand is that the system that we operate in is just as important, if not more so, than our own aspirations and potential contributions. Politics, economics and culture are usually taken for granted by technologists and scientists. Some are informed pessimists, and some are apathetically uninformed. The truth is that these systems serve as the silicon upon which we must build. We often try to abstract our way out of it, but if we want real change, we have to go right down to the hardware and begin making changes. The OP correctly identifies the cognitive dissonance in SV, as well as some aspects of classical capitalism. The reality is that we are running a society based upon assumptions made hundreds of years ago as to what a society constitutes and how it should work. These factors are all changing rapidly, and it’s becoming clear that our systems aren't keeping up. In the USA, we face an unprecedented technological tidal wave in a winner-take-all capitalist society. This has massive upsides for the winners (entrepreneurs, VCs, hedge funds, banks, etc.) and devastating consequences for the losers (unskilled labor, outdated/sidelined skilled labor, the sick, poor, unemployed, etc.). Furthermore, this type of laissez-faire economy incentivizes short term investments at the cost of long term projects (Apollo, Human Genome, etc.). As the role of government and its spending becomes increasingly demonized, we will undoubtedly see these trends strengthen, leading to more emphasis on the present at the expense of the future. Projects that don’t have immediate benefits will be cancelled, and long term research will grind to a halt. We are already seeing this with the plateau and decline of government research institutions, soon to be followed by the demise of publicly funded research in academia. What we really have to ask ourselves is this: what is the most optimal contribution we can make during these times? Is it better to dedicate some time to rethink these foundations, or do we just push forward on our own high level projects in hopes of making small positive contributions? When do we start treating government and politics like an engineered system, which can be planned and optimized for certain outcomes? And finally, when do we start talking about which outcomes we want to see in the long term? I am cautiously hopeful, but it is going to take a lot of individual introspection by the technical community to reach the critical mass required to enact long-term positive change.