Tech Genius to the Rescue

Over dinner last night my friends and neighbors presented an opinion about climate change which I believe to be ubiquitous: They think that when things start to get bad, the tech gurus like Gates and Zuckerberg will step in to save the day. "They won't allow the world to be destroyed" my liberal neighbor stated and she implied they would be incentivized by a mix of self-interest and altruism. In this dominant belief system, (also expressed by my father a while ago), a technical solution exists just beyond the horizon. It is being developed quietly by the technical-industrial complex (academia, entrepreneurial start-ups, global markets, etc) that has been producing magic since Guttenberg and only requires our continual investment in "infrastructure" and the ideology. It could be a new way to produce energy or store it or use it or remove and sequester CO2. We won't know till it arrives! The beauty of this belief system is it requires so little from the average person. Leave it to the rich and powerful and super-smart ones, after all, they have the most to lose. And all that talent.(And adulation to gain). All of us on the outside need only continue participating in the daily rituals, voting and working (or not, my neighbors and dad are retired) and paying taxes and sorting through all the information on NPR and PBS. Filtering it for the nuggets that enhance our faith. This also means rejecting "doom and gloom" negativity and those reports from the periphery where things are already "getting bad", it means living in a state of disavowal, where we hold a mental critique of political economy but act as if that critique does not exist. Kneel down and pray AS IF you believed, and your faith will be restored. Or hang your prayer flags and let the breeze do your praying for you. Anyway, Bill and Mark and the rest of you celebrity tech genius types, I hope you are listening. Cause when shit hits the fan it might be you they blame for everything, you they hunt down.