{
  "id": 4642555,
  "title": "How Silicon Valley Learned to Love Killer Robots",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/31/how-silicon-valley-learned-to-love-killer-robots",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-31T12:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Atlantic",
    "slug": "the-atlantic",
    "url": "https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/08/silicon-valley-science-fiction-jill-lepore-book-review/688467/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the late 1970s and 1980s, young billionaires Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Sam Altman were captivated by science fiction novels, particularly those featuring killer robots or Mars colonies. Despite these tales being cautionary stories warning of deep societal concerns into the distant future, the young men believed the killer robots sounded cool and allowed their fascination to shape their ambitions. This fascination played a significant role in their future careers as ruthless entrepreneurs, leading to Silicon Valley's embrace of technologies such as AI and space exploration.\n\nAs historian Jill Lepore notes in her book \"The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State,\" science fiction in Silicon Valley is not seen as a literary text or a set of cautionary tales, but rather as a form of technical writing – assembly instructions for the future. This perspective has resulted in a society that regards humanness and Earth itself as burdens to be overcome, rather than respected and preserved.\n\nLepore's work explores the strange turns in our world, such as our acceptance of technologies that may lead to our elimination, and the lack of concern from powerful entrepreneurs like Altman for the fate of most of our planet's surface being covered in data centers. She reveals the power and persistence of the adolescent mind, as well as the allure of technology without fully understanding the underlying themes.\n\nFor example, Musk's fascination with Asimov's \"Foundation\" series, which deals with the potential for a dark age lasting 30,000 years, led him to adopt a self-glorifying story of individual genius and foresight. Meanwhile, Bezos, a Star Trek enthusiast, dismissed the show's social consciousness in favor of its vision for extraterrestrial colonization. Both figures exemplify how young imaginations are often misinterpreted and misapplied, leading to a Silicon Valley culture that celebrates technology without fully grasping the potential consequences.",
  "summary": "Many of the tech billionaires who built our world have taken the wrong lessons from their favorite science fiction.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}