Silicon Valley, disruption, and the end of uncertainty

Abstract

This paper reflects on the relationship between hi-tech disruption narratives and uncertainty. My main argument is that an economic sociology of the future is incomplete without addressing the 'demonic' or rather eschatological elements apparent in the promissory twin rhetoric of disruption and inevitability that a number of contemporary technology firms employ. The conjuring up of liberatory hi-tech futures implicates a political-philosophical perspective of the end game. It utilizes at once the productive power of uncertainty to create visions of 'absolute riches' and societal gain but at the same time narrows these futures down to one inevitable alternative to the status quo. Through the examples of two Silicon Valley disruptor firms I argue that these eschatological narratives need to be opened to social scientific critique in order to examine their potential societal consequences above and beyond the narrow geographic confines of 'the Valley'.

Sanitizing agri-food tech: COVID-19 and the politics of expectation

“…Such grand claims to far-reaching relevance are increasingly important as Silicon Valley has nurtured a form of venture capital in which investors expect phenomenal returns from a narrow subset of their portfolio (Doody, Chen, and Goldstein 2016;Hogarth 2017). Promissory practices, such as the events detailed here, 'bring into being and socially shape the objects they anticipate,' rendering expectations investable (Martin 2015, 424) often by depicting them as inevitable (Geiger 2020). Especially significant to this process are promissory organizations 'specializing in the production, commodification and selling of future-oriented knowledge' (Pollock and Williams 2010, 525).…”

Artificial Concepts of Artificial Intelligence: Institutional Compliance and Resistance in AI Startups

“…Both resource dependency theorists [44] and institutional theorists [13,36] argue that as organizations seek legitimacy, they become more similar over time due to adaptation to shared market and institutional pressures, in a process called "isomorphism" or "conformity. " This idea is in tension with the Silicon Valley notion that the most legitimate innovations are those that "disrupt" existing ways of operating [18,21]. In our interviews, we observe a similar disconnect in how entrepreneurs talk about deep learning models versus how they actually build and use them.…”

Editorial: The personalisation of insurance: Data, behaviour and innovation

“…Like others in the venture capital funded tech start-up world, Lemonade has a vested interest in this narrative. Getting the narrative right, as Geiger (2019) demonstrates in her discussion of the short and spectacular history of digital health start-up Theranos, is key to securing initial funding and ongoing capital investment. Lemonade is adroit at this, their unicorn valuation and the doubling of their share value on the first day of trading was secured even though the company, after 5 years in business, remains loss making and a very small player in its core markets (Ralph, 2020).…”