Chafkin: Silicon Valley originated as defense contracting, not counterculture
Max Chafkin · Unraveling The Mystery Of Peter Thiel — With Max Chafkin · Sep 21, 2021 · at 16:38
Max Chafkin, author of a biography on Peter Thiel, discusses the contrasting ideological narratives of Silicon Valley with host Alex Kantrowitz.
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“But it's kind of a weird way of looking at an industry that literally started as an extension of the U.S. Military. And like, you know, there's nothing, there is, there are countercultural things about Silicon Valley. But to see the tech industry as just this kind of outgrowth of sixties counterculture is like to miss, you know, the whole beginning of the industry and like, you know, a thread that probably is just as important as like, as you say, you know, something that kind of A little bit came down to branding or something like that, which is like these guys talking about saving the world. But I don't know. I mean, the real root is, you know, a bunch of defense contractors.”
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