Marc Andreessen's Techno-Optimist Manifesto lists trust and safety, sustainability, and tech ethics as “enemies”, says AI is “our Philosopher's Stone”, and more

In a 5,200-word manifesto published by the venture capitalist and billionaire Marc Andreessen on Monday …

Fortune 2023-10-17 Rachyl Jones

Context & Ripple Effects

The manifesto extends Andreessen’s earlier public case for building and techno-optimism, including his “It’s Time to Build” argument and subsequent discussion of AI alongside software’s expansion into the physical world. It turns that posture into a more explicit ideological critique of the institutions and norms that constrain technology.

Its importance lies less in a product announcement than in clarifying a fault line that later coverage framed as a contest between concentrated AI safety and unfettered advancement.

First-order effects

Andreessen publicly defines trust and safety, sustainability, and tech ethics as opposing forces, sharpening the ideological divide around how AI should be developed and governed.
The manifesto gives founders, investors, and policy advocates a concise pro-acceleration frame for arguing that AI’s potential should take priority over precautionary constraints.

Second-order effects

AI companies and investors advocating rapid deployment gain a prominent rhetorical reference point, while safety-focused groups face a more direct challenge to the legitimacy of their agenda.
The debate shifts from individual AI safeguards toward a broader argument over whether delays, centralization, and risk management are themselves barriers to progress—themes examined in a later reflection on the manifesto.

Third-order effects

If this framing continues to organize capital and political advocacy, AI governance may increasingly be contested as an industrial-policy choice between speed and constraint, not merely as a technical safety question.
The durable tension is whether public trust can be treated as a prerequisite for AI adoption or as a friction on innovation; outcomes will depend on how developers, regulators, and users weigh those competing claims.

The trend: This is one marker of AI’s evolution from a product and research race into an ideological struggle over who defines acceptable limits on technological progress.

Discussion

@parkert Parker Thompson on threads
The mind virus is reporters seeing VCs so much as the antagonist class that they completely lose the big story here. Marc is on the board of Meta, which has the must robust trust and safety organization on the planet. Be thoughtful about where you get your news, people!
@arunsees Arun Rao on threads
Andreessen's “gospel of technology”, his techno-optimist manifesto - it extols the red blooded virtues of capitalism without acknowledging flaws (as with any system). A fun read, though unbalanced, and descriptive of what many Silicon Valley founders believe. https://a16z.com/..…
@migueldeicaza Miguel de Icaza on threads
Find yourself a partner that loves you as much as Marc Andreessen loves debating his imaginary foes.
@taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on threads
Ppl like Marc Andreessen are the opposite of techno optimists. Rather than fund/leverage technology to build a better world, their primary goal is to extract maximum profit at the expense of users and society. They don't want a better future through tech, they just want to prof…
@tomgara Tom Gara on threads
TFW you went all in on web3 as the future of the internet
@reckless1280 Nilay Patel on threads
This is many things but mostly it is some of the worst sentence-level writing I've seen in quite a while https://a16z.com/...
@alex.stamos Alex Stamos on threads
“Um, sir, I think we should encourage this portfolio company to have a security team that models how hundreds of organized criminal groups might abuse the technology we are valuing at a $100m pre...” “YOU ARE THE ENEMY OF PROGRESS!! 1!”
@thatadamguy Adam Lasnik on threads
A reminder that Marc is the fellow who wrote a “Time to build!” essay around the time he and his wife frantically fought the building of additional housing near them. The same guy who is infamous for having an itchy Block finger on Twitter, plugging his ears/eyes against anyone …
@b_fung Brian Fung on threads
Weird how Andreessen spends so much time talking about markets being self-regulating and then identifies these things as somehow existing outside of that market construct https://a16z.com/...
@johnbattelle John Battelle on threads
I Googled his citations. They are....consistent in, er, political and social philosophy. And ... well, this is a nice place. I've said enough.
@daveleebbg Dave Lee on threads
No-one in Andreessen's orbit dared edit this? I've seen more considered thoughts scrawled on the wall of a San Francisco dive bar toilet
@malwaretech Marcus Hutchins on threads
Out of touch mediocre men in tech is how we got Roko's Basilisk. Please make them stop trying to do philosophy. It's like someone read What We Owe The Future while smoking PCP.
@crumbler Casey Newton on threads
Marc Andreessen declares “trust and safety” an enemy of society and says “deaths that were preventable by the AI that was prevented from existing is a form of murder.” He calls this philosophy “techno optimism” https://a16z.com/...
@alex.stamos Alex Stamos on threads
Andreessen has a lot of reasonable thoughts in this screed around the possible benefits of technological development, but his dismissal of any teams that try to stop adversarial uses of technology as being “enemies” is just unhinged and a telling reflecting of the VC echo chamber…
@Meyerweb@mastodon.social @Meyerweb@mastodon.social on mastodon
For my own peace of mind I am not going to read the Techno-Goatse essay, but from what I'm seeing in my timeline, it makes sense that Marc has gone with an Alex Jones look. https://fortune.com/... [image]
@marypcbuk.bsky.social Scary Mary Branscombe on bluesky
The Philosopher's Stone (only a JK Rowling reference in the US IIRC?) is the thing you cut toad skulls open looking for in Alchemy 101, so perfect for a VC who stopped understanding technology decades ago [embedded post]
@davekarpf.bsky.social Dave Karpf on bluesky
What we need is pragmatism, not a return to Stewart Brand-style starry optimism.
@anildash.com Anil Dash on bluesky
Trust and safety is Andreessen's enemy because he has directly profited from genocide and his entire world comes crashing down if there were anything like an appropriate level of accountability for that. [embedded post]
@mmasnick.bsky.social Mike Masnick on bluesky
Including “trust and safety” in his list of “the enemy,” the (only recently) former board member of Meta is kinda telling on himself. — This is stupid. And it's going to do real harm. — I actually agree with much of his “optimism” but, claiming trust & safety is the enemy is…
@pmarca Marc Andreessen on x
Patron Saints of Techno-Optimism Read the work of these people, and you too will become a Techno-Optimist. @BasedBeffJezos @bayeslord @PessimistsArc Ada Lovelace Adam Smith Andy Warhol Bertrand Russell Brad DeLong Buckminster Fuller Calestous Juma Clayton Christensen Dambisa...
@alex @alex on x
so the new a16z manifesto includes the anti-"trust and safety" riff; also, a16z website touts Roblox as a key exit. Roblox: [image]
@timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x
A good test of arguments against AI is whether they apply equally well to printers. Can printers make bad stuff? Yes. Can printers steal people's copyrighted work? Yes. Might a printer exhaust the world's resources if you asked it to print a quadrillion pages?
@molly0xfff Molly White on x
the idea that tech ethics is anti-tech is so absurd. in my experience, the people who care about tech ethics are some of the people who love technology the most.
@evacide Eva on x
Major VC writes manifesto: “Building the Torment Nexus is Good, Actually.”
@brian_armstrong @brian_armstrong on x
This is the path toward progress. Decel narratives are all around us in popular culture and in meetings amongst elites. Thank you @a16z for a breath of fresh air.
@sriramk Sriram Krishnan on x
Among other things the @pmarca essay is A) a rallying cry and a flag - do you want optimism or not? B) a binary sieve for folks to self select into. Also telling who has immediately jumped to criticize an essay on optimism - it's self selecting into a group.
@ellagirwin Ella Irwin on x
I love the term “Techno Optimist”. Optimists have more fun in life. Really well written and agree with about 95% of this.
@espiers Elizabeth Spiers on x
And of course this self-aggrandizing nonsense is from @pmarca. If the 1% can convince you that their disregard for the potential harm they can buy themselves out of (but you can't) is about their brave risk taking and optimism, maybe you'll excuse it. https://a16z.com/...
@can @can on x
gonna need some evidence that this was written by humans, not chatgpt
@scottsantens Scott Santens on x
He blocked me years ago, but apparently @pmarca has only gotten dumber about basic income since we first sparred over it. He put this in his latest “techno-optimist manifesto:” “We believe a Universal Basic Income would turn people into zoo animals to be farmed by the state. Man.…
@samfbiddle Sam Biddle on x
Definitely do be alarmed by his shouting out Marinetti as an ideological hero but I can't stress enough how much, stylistically, this reads like it was written by one of the teen libertarians who used to argue about Dreamcast vs PS2 on my old message board https://a16z.com/...
@evacide Eva on x
All I'm going to say is that maybe you should be skeptical of a manifesto that paints the investor class as heroes who will save humanity by *checks notes* putting growth and profit above all else.
@garymarcus Gary Marcus on x
Anyone catch Marc Andreessen's “Techno-Optimist” Manifesto? I admire his unbridled optimism, his yearning for markets to be free, his longing for technologies that could be without restraint, his ability to unabashedly cite 56 of his allies and nobody who disagrees, and,...
@bcmerchant Brian Merchant on x
You can intuit nearly everything you need to from a document that claims to be a “techno-optimist” manifesto that hinges on the dictum “love doesn't scale... let's stick with money.” [image]
@berber_jin1 Berber Jin on x
where does crypto fit into this techno-optimist vision of the future? a16z raised a $4.5 billion fund for crypto investments last year and not a single mention of it in this essay https://a16z.com/...
@0xmasonh @0xmasonh on x
Optimists win because we have more fun
@deljohnsonvc Del Johnson on x
Venture capitalists are calling risk management “the enemy” just over half a year after the industry was screaming for the government to rescue their failing bank. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, moral hazard.
@paultoo Paul Buchheit on x
This is an important point. Children are being poisoned in schools and media with the narratives of doom, and decline: that there is no future, that the planet is dying, and that everything has to get worse. Hopelessness and depression are the inevitable/intentional consequence. …
@oneunderscore__ Ben Collins on x
Marc Andreessen, who runs one of the biggest Silicon Valley venture capital firms, wrote a “manifesto” today labeling “social responsibility” and “tech ethics” teams “the enemy.” His firm recently pivoted from crypto/Web3 to American military and defense contractor technology. [i…
@louisanslow Louis Anslow on x
Honored to be on this list for @pessimistsarc Technophobia always felt like a dangerous & corrosive force, I couldn't have imagined almost a decade after starting this we'd have so little progress on nuclear, so many attacks on encryption & a war on AI! https://x.com/...
@ylecun Yann LeCun on x
Good piece. One doesn't have to agree with all the details to subscribe to the main tenets.
@katienotopoulos Katie Notopoulos on x
Nice stealth marketing campaign for @bcmerchant's excellent new book about the history of the Luddites. Can't think of a better endorsement than Marc Andreessen's manifesto to make one want to learn the real history of the movement https://a16z.com/... [image]
@tobi Tobi Lutke on x
Yes. That. Signed.
@id_aa_carmack John Carmack on x
If this had been posted last week, I would have just framed the book challenge as exploring the arguments against this. I won't defend all the points, but yeah, this is my team, and I truly think it should be yours as well.
@basedbeffjezos @basedbeffjezos on x
Simply incredible piece. Beautifully and succinctly captures the entirety of the e/acc sentiment. I fully endorse every single word. Time for us to make a bigger tent as “techno-optimists” and scale to the rest of the world beyond X.
@nickpinkston @nickpinkston on x
🧵 As an Accelerationist, I've been watching e/acc gain traction interest. With @pmarca post, it's time to address this philosophy's shortcomings. Namely, that it is not broad or ambitious enough to truly fulfill the role we as tech leaders have to the future and society.
@bhorowitz @bhorowitz on x
Let's go!! I needed some positivity this morning . . .
@tomcoates Tom Coates on x
I'm sort of mystified why people aren't more horrified by Marc Andreessen's quoting from a document that talked about the hygiene of war and how museums, libraries and feminism should all be destroyed. Am I weird for being horrified by this?! [image]
@mmitchell_ai @mmitchell_ai on x
Wow. That's a lot of enemies. Also sort of odd to equate people who literally bring morality to AI discourse with “demoralization”.
@stewartbrand Stewart Brand on x
1/ Bravo to @pmarca for spelling out his thoughts on techno-optimism. It is clarifying and self-consistent... ...but I think incomplete in an important way. What is missing I covered in my history of precision in manufacturing, here:https://books.worksinprogress.co/ ...
@espiers Elizabeth Spiers on x
It's very convenient for billionaires to pretend that people are angry at technology and not the avarice of people who hoard wealth. Read this and substitute “wealth hoarding” for “technology” and only then is it somewhat accurate: [image]
@sriramk Sriram Krishnan on x
One of the most important things we might have written.
@stevesi Steven Sinofsky on x
“Technology is the glory of human ambition and achievement, the spearhead of progress, and the realization of our potential. For hundreds of years, we properly glorified this - until recently.” The Techno-Optimist Manifesto https://a16z.com/...
@bayeslord @bayeslord on x
i fucking love this https://a16z.com/...
@pmarca Marc Andreessen on x
THE TECHNO-OPTIMIST MANIFESTO part 1 “You live in a deranged age — more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.” — Walker Percy “Our species is 300,000 years old. For the...
@opinonhaver William B. Fuckley on x
How do you see bland corporate PR stuff like ESG as more of an enemy to technological progress than the millions of people who've effectively been polarized against modern medicine?
@molly0xfff Molly White on x
a16z: tech ethics is against technology and life when someone shows you who they are, believe them
@martin_casado @martin_casado on x
Finally someone wrote it all down in one place. Kudos to @pmarca for setting another clear intellectual landmark in the discourse. https://a16z.com/...
@grady_booch Grady Booch on x
Marc is correct: we are being lied to. By Marc. And by so many others in his insular, privileged place. https://a16z.com/...
@a16z @a16z on x
We are told that technology is on the brink of ruining everything. But we are being lied to, and the truth is so much better. Today we present Marc Andreessen's (@pmarca) vision for the future, one rooted in a profound techno-optimism. https://a16z.com/... [image]
@edzitron Ed Zitron on x
A16Z's lawyers frowning as they are sent an email from Marc saying “risk management is now “woke""
@hamandcheese Samuel Hammond on x
This is an extreme inversion of Nick Land's theory of techno-capital. As he once put it, “Nothing human makes it out of the near-future.” https://a16z.com/... [image]
@mathewi Mathew Ingram on x
I guess we're all just going to ignore the Goatse-inspired image that's included when you share this Andreessen essay? https://a16z.com/...
@silvermanjacob Jacob Silverman on x
pmarca unblocked me. Truly a new era. It's time to build. Haven't read the new thing. I will. It sounds bad, but I will read it.
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
Narrator: Andreessen is arguably Facebook's most problematic and seemingly untouchable board member after Peter Thiel's departure.
@karaswisher Kara Swisher on x
Typical boneheaded straw man setup that EVERYONE but the fine minds of tech elite hate the future. Most of us are both excited and wary — given the cost so far — about tech and that is how adults behave: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto | Andreessen Horowitz https://a16z.com/...
r/Futurology r on reddit
Marc Andreessen just dropped a ‘Techno-Optimist Manifesto’ that sees a world of 50 billion people settling other planets
r/Futurology r on reddit
The Techno-Optimist Manifesto | Andreessen Horowitz

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