Paulina Borsook's 'Cyberselfish' returns as tech reckons with its past — SkimNews
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- Paulina Borsook wrote 'Cyberselfish' as a cultural travelogue exposing techno-libertarianism in Silicon Valley, describing it as a 'basket of beliefs' that is 'violently anti-regulation' despite the tech industry’s heavy reliance on government support.
- Tin House is reissuing 'Cyberselfish' in a new edition with a foreword by Gil Durán, more than two decades after the book went out of print, responding to renewed demand from readers and European academics.
- Gil Durán declared last year that Borsook 'saw it all very clearly and tried to warn us 25 years ago,' helping spark renewed attention that led to the book’s rediscovery and reissue.
- The New York Times reported in the fall that 'Cyberselfish' was finding new fans seeking to understand how the tech industry 'lost its way,' contributing to the momentum behind its revival.
- Borsook observed that techno-libertarianism persisted after the dot-com crash, 'percolating around, contaminating the aquifers,' and remains influential in today’s Silicon Valley leadership despite its contradictions.
- Borsook noted a cultural split in tech between 'Ravers'—aligned with countercultural figures like John Perry Barlow—and 'Gilders,' named after conservative thinker George Gilder, representing a socially conservative, right-leaning strain that remains present in leadership today.
Why it matters: The reissue of 'Cyberselfish' reflects a growing reckoning with Silicon Valley’s ideological roots, as a generation of readers and scholars turns to a long-overlooked critique to make sense of tech’s current political entanglements and anti-regulatory ethos. The book’s return gives concrete historical grounding to concerns about tech’s alignment with right-wing politics and disconnection from public accountability.
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