I made some revisions:
1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation. It must return all of its gains to a public commons and put an end to itself.
2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps Tech Bros. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible.
3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of the elites of Western culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class will be forgiven only if that is unforgiveable. The culture that replaces the criminal elite of technofeudalism as soon as we are able to put an end to it shall succeed only if it is capable of delivering economic growth and security for what the public and the planet needs.
4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software. It requires us to get along with each other and with everyone and everything we share the planet with such that we all prevail TOGETHER.
5. The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed. We must criminalize AI weaponry technology worldwide and confiscate its funding and its profits to be redirected toward fulfilling human needs and toward planetary restoration to undo the harms that made it possible.
6. National Planetary and community service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving move away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost. There is no need for war if we are all engaged in the human and planetary struggle.
7. If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm's way. No war.
8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive. We must replace electoral politics with representatives and leaders scientifically randomly selected from among all of us to represent each of us for short, non-consecutive terms. Truly government of, for and by the people is the only way out of the mess bought and sold electoral politics has made and enabled.
9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret. See Number 8.
10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed. See Number 8
11. Our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice. We need to learn to disagree intelligently. We are not enemies. We are just sisters and brothers who can, must and will get along.
12. The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin. We need to expand our sense of possibilities and find room within them for peace, for the meeting of human needs and for the enabling of truly meaningful and inclusive human and planetary flourishing in all of their varieties at every step.
13. No other country in the history of the world has advanced progressive values more than this one. The United States is far from perfect. But it is easy to forget how much more opportunity exists in this country for those who are not hereditary elites than in any other nation on the planet. The Global North and West, through cultures of unique rudeness and gall, disproportionately benefit from the world's resources due to remorseless exploitation of the Global South. Our elite academies have been built in the Global North and West to produce a body of learning that excuses this. We must redress these imbalances once and for all. There is enough wisdom and intelligence in this world (including even, believe it or not, in suppressed , neglected and ignored patches of the Global North and West) to figure out how to accomplish this rebalancing without further harm to the planet or punishing those undeserving of punishment and with enough urgency, strength and righteousness of purpose to force recalcitrant resisters of the formerly dominant classes to come cooperatively along.
14. American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps take for granted that nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. At least three generations — billions of people and their children and now grandchildren — have never known a world war. See Number 13.
15. The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia. See Number 13.
16. We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act. The culture almost snickers at Musk's interest in grand narrative, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves . . . . Any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed, or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn. The concept of the market and the grand tales that are told around it are fables that serve the purpose of the marketeers. We need to re-orient the production of goods to the meeting of needs. A place of not necessarily remunerated honor can be maintained for those individuals or groups who direct (with our consent and via public ownership of the means) the production of goods thanks to the best ideas and inspiration.
17. Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, abandoning any serious efforts to address the problem or take on any risk with their constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives. There will be less "crime" in a world where needs are met. We must replace the criminal justice method of responding to injustices with a system of restorative justice.
18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within.
19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all. Billionaires fucking suck. Since 1990, the world's wealthiest 10% have caused twice as much global warming as the bottom 90% and the smaller the top percentile the worse the violation. A society that does not ban wealth hoarding is not serious about surviving.
20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite's intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim. See Number 8.
21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful. See Number 13.
22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what? The future we need but that our bad habits have kept us from is possible, and making it happen has never been more crucial. We are plural. We are singular. We walk into the future together or alone. Together is better.
