Why Silicon Valley Loves the Techno-Optimist Manifesto

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Written by the entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, the essay is a paean to technology and capitalism.

By Cameron Abadi, a deputy editor at Foreign Policy, and Adam Tooze, a columnist at Foreign Policy and director of the European Institute at Columbia University. Sign up for Adam’s Chartbook newsletter here.

Entrepreneur Marc Andreessen speaks onstage during TechCrunch's Disrupt SF 2016 at Pier 48 in San Francisco, California.

Entrepreneur Marc Andreessen speaks onstage during TechCrunch's Disrupt SF 2016 at Pier 48 in San Francisco, California, on Sept. 13, 2016. Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch

Andreessen Horowitz, the world’s largest venture capital fund, based in Silicon Valley, manages a total of $35 billion ranging from small start-ups to established major companies, including, at various times, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype. The co-founder of the fund, Marc Andreessen, is widely respected as an investor and also as a public intellectual. His most recent essay, “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto,” sets out a vision for unrestrained technological development, criticizing all the various political forces that stand in the way. The manifesto was widely praised across Silicon Valley.

Cameron Abadi is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @CameronAbadi

Adam Tooze is a columnist at Foreign Policy and a history professor and the director of the European Institute at Columbia University. He is the author of Chartbook, a newsletter on economics, geopolitics, and history. Twitter: @adam_tooze