The idea of a “permanent underclass” started as a meme. It’s tapping real anxieties in Silicon Valley.

The concept of a "permanent underclass" due to artificial intelligence began as an internet meme but is now tapping into genuine worries within Silicon Valley. A 2025 holiday-season post on the rationalist blog forum LessWrong began with the ominous lines, "I turn 20 in January, and the world looks very strange. Probably, lots of jobs will be gone soon.

Probably, the smartest thing alive will no longer be human." The article describes the writer's growing unease, lack of motivation in lectures, and an increasing sense of being trapped in an AI-driven future. A few weeks later, the writer advised his followers to create a podcast to "escape the permanent underclass." The 20-year-old author, Parv Mahajan, is a Georgia Tech computer science student who wrote the piece.

The "permanent underclass" narrative is gaining traction, and Mahajan's prophetic words have resonated with young, intelligent minds in Silicon Valley. Jayden Clark, a 28-year-old San Francisco Bay Area resident, is one of the most influential figures promoting this view. Clark, who was not the original creator of the idea, has made a career out of exposing the peculiarities of Silicon Valley.

He moved to San Francisco from Australia in 2017 to study music but quickly found himself drawn to the tech scene. Clark's sarcastic, jargon-laden social media content, often shared with his 40,000 X followers, often includes his thoughts on the AI-driven future. Clark coined the term "effective accelerationism" (e/acc) to describe his stance on embracing technological progress, even in the face of potential AI threats. He remains a staunch advocate for technology and a critic of those who fear AI-induced job loss.