This was the week of Techcrunch Disrupt, one of San Francisco’s biggest technology events of the year. That Was The Week publisher Keith Teare attended Disrupt this year and, as he explained in our weekly round up of tech news, the event - which was attended by over 10,000 people - only confirmed to him that we are living in profoundly disruptive technology times. And yet, as Keith and I discuss, the more things change in technology, the more things seem to stay the same in politics. So while AI is radically disrupting the world, next week’s election is, essentially, a rerun of the Biden-Trump race from four years ago. So will new Silicon Valley technology ever successfully disrupt politics? Or will American tech and American politics continue to exist in surreally parallel universes?
Keith Teare is the founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. Previously, he was executive chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd., a U.K.-based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. Teare studied at the University of Kent and is the author of “The Easy Net Book” and “Under Siege.” He writes regularly for TechCrunch and publishes the “That Was The Week” newsletter.
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Episode 2242: Should anyone in Silicon Valley really care who wins the election?