Let me take you back to a time — not ancient history, not myth or legend, but the not-so-distant past — when “tech” meant something. When the scruffy kids in hoodies and the rebels with code were the ones prying open closed systems, championing transparency, and insisting that technology could, and should, make the world better. We weren’t perfect — nobody who ever built anything worthwhile is — but we believed in something bigger than ourselves.
That’s why Aaron Zamost’s recent opinion essay in The New York Times hit me like a bucket of ice water to the face. In it, Zamost lays out a damning case: Today’s tech giants have descended from that once-lofty perch into just another band of power brokers feeding at the trough of a corrupt, ethically bankrupt political machine. Once the industry that took pride in “do no evil” and “don’t be evil,” tech now resembles the very institutions it used to challenge — opaque, self-dealing and obsessed with appeasing whichever administration happens to be in power.
It’s not that he’s wrong. It’s that he’s painfully right.
When the Good Guys Lost the Plot
Zamost chronicles how the big players — Meta, Apple, and the rest of the modern pantheon — have become entangled in the same cynical power games they once claimed to transcend. Tech was supposed to disrupt entrenched power structures, not sell out to them. It was supposed to challenge the system, not bankroll it. But today, the giants of our industry spend more time navigating political alliances, lobbying for favorable regulation, and protecting their fiefdoms than inventing the future.
Somewhere along the way, our so-called visionaries traded in their moral compasses for membership cards in the party. They swapped idealism for influence. They stopped caring about the downtrodden, the ignored, the ones discriminated against. They became just another crew of robber barons — only with better cafeterias and slightly nicer hoodies.
You don’t need an NYT article to know this. Just follow the money. Just watch which decisions get made when principles collide with profit. We’ve gone from “technology will empower people” to “technology will empower shareholders,” and while those two goals are not mutually exclusive, they sure as hell aren’t synonyms. Tech has been kidnapped to be a nationalistic weapon, to help put up walls, instead of tearing them down. To create divisions and inequalities instead of ending them.
Why Tech Must Be Different
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: America needs the tech sector to be better than this.
Not wants. Needs.
We’re standing at the threshold of an era unlike anything humanity has ever seen — AI, robotics, quantum computing, autonomous systems, synthetic biology. The stakes aren’t trivial. The next decade will shape the next century. This isn’t about the next social app or the next chip refresh. This is about the next age of civilization.
And in this pivotal moment, what do we have?
A tech ecosystem terrified of bad press, allergic to taking principled risks, and overly eager to bend the knee to whichever regulator or bully shakes a sword in its direction. A sector that once broke rules in pursuit of progress now tiptoes, apologizes and pays legal ransom to settle lawsuits that often have more to do with theater than justice.
How did the people who invented the future become so afraid of it?
What’s at Stake If We Don’t Course-Correct
Let me be blunt: If we don’t fix this, the future will be built for us, not with us — and certainly not by the people who care most about humanity’s well-being.
We already know politicians won’t save us. Half of them don’t understand the basics of the technologies they’re regulating, and the other half pretend not to if it helps them raise money. They just want tech under their thumb, and as long as the bros play along, they get the illusion of being part of the team. Wall Street? Don’t make me laugh. The Street has always optimized for quarterly returns, not human flourishing. Expecting them to safeguard the greater good is like asking a wolf to manage the lamb nursery.
That leaves us — those who actually build the tools.
If tech abandons its moral north star, then all the awe-inspiring breakthroughs ahead of us — general AI, machine autonomy, limitless computational power — risk becoming instruments of control instead of liberation. Tools of profit instead of progress. Systems designed to manage people instead of empower them.
Tech used to fight the good fight. And it has to again. Not as a nostalgic nod to the past, but because civilization itself depends on it.
Reclaiming the Good Fight
So, how do we get back there? How do we recapture that sense of mission, of purpose, of doing something that mattered beyond market cap?
For starters:
- Stop Paying Ransom to Make Problems Disappear
When companies settle every questionable lawsuit just to avoid controversy or court time, they reinforce the idea that fear — not principle — drives decision-making. Doing the right thing shouldn’t feel like an existential risk.
- Throw Off the Vassal Chains
Tech can’t continue acting like a feudal subject paying tribute to whichever government happens to hold the whip that quarter. Yes, we need regulation. But we don’t need regulators writing the playbook while we nod obediently. We need a partnership with government, but not government owning a “piece of the action.”
- Rediscover Our Reason for Existing
Tech wasn’t born to build monopolies. It wasn’t born to maximize EBITDA. It was born because people believed the world could be better. That ethos has to come from leadership — real leadership. Leaders who see beyond stock-based compensation cycles.
The Path Back to Glory
Let’s talk solutions. Real ones.
Return to the Garage
Not literally — you can keep your standing desks and kombucha taps. But spiritually. Innovation thrives where curiosity thrives, not where compliance officers roam. Tech needs to reward tinkering, experimenting and inventing — not just scaling and monetizing.
Rebuild the Culture of Idealism
The best breakthroughs have always come from people who wanted to improve the human condition, not those trying to beat next quarter’s estimates. We need to celebrate that spirit again: Hackathons over hedge funds, vision over valuation.
Champion Humanity in the Age of AI
The irony is that as our machines get smarter, our responsibility to be human gets bigger. Compassion, ethics, judgment — these are the things algorithms can’t replicate. Yet. And even if they could, they shouldn’t.
Shape Leaders, Not Barons
History shouldn’t remember our era as the time tech was led by robber barons who would do anything to increase their share. It should remember the era when the brightest, most idealistic minds built tools that made life better for billions.
We’re Not Too Late — Unless We Choose to Be
We are not passengers in this story. We are not observers. We are the authors.
Zamost’s piece is a wake-up call, but it doesn’t have to be an obituary. If tech wants to reclaim its place as the sector that fights the good fight — the sector that stands for something beyond profits — we still can. We still have the talent. We still have the vision. What we need is courage.
Courage to stand for something.
Courage to do the right thing even when it’s expensive.
Courage to invent the future again.
Tech used to fight the good fight. And if we want a future worth living in — one where these world-changing technologies free us instead of enslaving us—then tech must fight that good fight again.
It starts now. With us.
