Cultural criticism and 'tech'
As an academic computer scientist, I frequently interact with the world of 'tech', as embodied by Silicon Valley, startups, etc. Many of my friends---from college, from graduate school---work there. My younger brother works there. One of the things that has kept me out of that world is my wariness of its politics, ethics, and aesthetics. I was delighted, then, when I was introduced to Model View Culture, a venue for cultural criticism of tech, sensu lato. They cover a wide range:
- how alcohol can make events less inclusive (and what to do about it);
- how 'get-into-tech' schools reiterate systemic inequality;
- what diversity is, and the difference between liberation and inclusion; and
- how 'hip' tech offices enforce the same cultural and political strictures as corporate America.
I'm writing because other academics---the audience of this blog---might be interested. Many students coming out of the elite CS programs (my academic home for more than a decade) are going to end up working in the world MVC writes about. They'll go as interns and then as employees. What is it like there?
But I'm also writing because MVC has been subjected to tremendous blowback. I'm not going to link to it, but it's not hard to find. Silence is complicity, so: Model View Culture is writing smart things about hard problems. If you'd like to support them, just reading is a fine place to start... but of course money is good, too.