In Silicon Valley, the future is not just imagined — it is being actively constructed by some of the world’s most powerful tech billionaires. Entrepreneurs like Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos are not only shaping the next wave of innovation but also steering humanity toward a vision of radical technological transformation. But according to science writer and astrophysicist Adam Becker, this ambitious agenda carries enormous risks.
In his new book, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity, Becker argues that these tech titans are promoting an ideology he terms “technological salvation” — a belief system rooted in the unshakable conviction that technology can solve any problem, including death itself.
These visions include developing artificial superintelligence to solve global crises, merging human consciousness with machines, colonizing Mars, and spreading civilization across the cosmos. While these ideas may sound like science fiction, Becker contends that they are guiding real-world decisions with potentially dangerous implications.
“Behind the glossy rhetoric,” Becker writes, “is a belief system that often masks deeper motives — the pursuit of profit, power, and escape from societal responsibility.”
He traces this worldview back to a cluster of interrelated ideologies: transhumanism, longtermism, effective altruism, accelerationism, and the concept of the Singularity — popularized by futurist Ray Kurzweil. Though different in tone, they share core themes: escape from physical limitations, exponential technological growth, and a moral imperative to prioritize future potential over present realities.
Many of these ideas, Becker notes, carry problematic histories. Transhumanism was first popularized by Julian Huxley, a known eugenicist. Some tech leaders, such as Marc Andreessen, have referenced early 20th-century futurist manifestos with links to authoritarianism and fascism. “When wealth and power become so concentrated,” Becker writes, “there’s often little pushback — and bad ideas can thrive unchecked.”
Becker takes particular issue with Ray Kurzweil’s idea known as the “Law of Accelerating Returns” — the belief that technology doesn’t just progress steadily, but accelerates rapidly over time, with each breakthrough fueling even faster advancements. This belief has become a cornerstone in Silicon Valley, used to justify predictions of near-future superintelligence and exponential innovation.
But Becker argues that this vision is misleading. He says it misinterprets historical trends like Moore’s Law — a 1965 observation by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles roughly every two years, making computers faster and cheaper. While this trend held for decades, Becker points out it wasn’t driven by a law of nature, but by conscious decisions and massive investments from the tech industry. And now, even Moore’s Law is slowing down.
In short, Becker warns that betting on limitless exponential progress is more fantasy than fact. “It’s a seductive narrative,” he says, “but not grounded in reality.”
The danger, according to Becker, lies not just in the hubris of these billionaires but in the passivity of the public. These narratives, with their promises of immortality, order, and a knowable future, appeal to widespread anxieties in a chaotic world. “They offer control — or at least the illusion of it,” he says.
But this technocratic vision often overlooks today’s pressing challenges: environmental degradation, social inequality, and democratic backsliding. By focusing on distant, speculative futures, Becker argues, the tech elite risk diverting resources and attention from the real, solvable crises we face now.
The solution, he suggests, is critical engagement. “Silicon Valley enjoyed over a decade of near-zero accountability,” Becker writes. “That era is ending. We must question their visions and demand that innovation align with the public good — not just billionaire fantasies.”
Prepared by Navruzakhon Burieva
