Tech Industry Manifestos: A Workshop

This workshop invites media and communication researchers to collectively analyse and discuss tech industry manifestos as a genre of both corporate communication and socio-political imaginaries. While tech manifestos have a long history within tech countercultures (e.g., Foster 2020), in recent years the genre has become increasingly prominent among CEOs and venture capitalists across the tech industry. Notable examples include Building Global Community by Mark Zuckerberg (2017), The Techno-Optimist Manifesto by Marc Andreesen (2023), and The Intelligence Age by Sam Altman (2024). These manifestos lay out far-reaching proposals for how technologies ought to (re-)structure human life and co-habitation, now and in the future. <br/><br/>The (mostly white male) authors of these manifestos wield considerable symbolic, economic and political power. They are influential not only through their platforms that affect hundreds of millions to billions of users, but also through their large financial resources and direct and indirect political ties. As such, we can think of their manifestos as testaments to their corporate and media industrial visions, political strategizing and as attempts at shaping both the future and the present through socio-technical imaginaries. <br/><br/>Therefore, this workshop calls on media and communication researchers to take tech industry manifestos seriously. Through in-depth analysis, it is important to understand the meanings and potential consequences of such tech industry manifestos. Through critique and by presenting alternatives, we can then imagine and pursue not just technological but also liveable futures. <br/>At the event, participants will be placed into groups to analyse a specific manifesto, discussing a series of theoretical and methodological questions with the aim of producing a short presentation. Each group will then present in plenum.<br/>If participants have time to prepare before the workshop, we encourage them to read one or both of the manifestos by Zuckerberg (2017) and Andreesen (2023, see reference list). Preparation, however, is not a requirement, as the workshop will also revolve around shorter manifestos from Altman (2024), Barlow (1996), and Thiel (2009), which there will time to read at the event. Participants do not need to bring any materials.