According to Fast Company, we’re at a historical juncture with eerie parallels to the 1920s, including paradigm-shifting technologies, revolts against immigration and globalism, income inequality, and a global pandemic. The article draws connections between today’s technological optimism and the period preceding two world wars, the Great Depression, and the rise of fascism and communism. Fast Company argues that today’s creators lack connection to the real world, similar to how early 20th century optimism failed to prevent catastrophic outcomes despite scientific breakthroughs. This disconnect between technological advancement and human reality suggests we’re repeating dangerous historical patterns.
Table of Contents
The Rationality Delusion in Tech Culture
Silicon Valley’s obsession with pure logic represents what philosophers call the “rationalist delusion” – the mistaken belief that human affairs can be reduced to clean, mathematical models. This mindset treats human behavior as predictable inputs and outputs, ignoring the messy reality of emotion, culture, and irrationality that defines actual human experience. The industry’s embrace of effective altruism, utilitarianism, and data-driven decision making creates systems that work beautifully in theory but fail catastrophically when encountering real humans who don’t behave according to their models.
When Optimization Creates Fragility
The fundamental problem with logic-first thinking is that it optimizes for efficiency at the expense of resilience. Systems designed for maximum logical efficiency become brittle when faced with unpredictable human behavior or black swan events. Social media algorithms optimized for engagement logically concluded that outrage and division were the most efficient paths to their goals, creating societal consequences the models couldn’t anticipate. Similarly, gig economy platforms built on perfectly logical supply-demand equations failed to account for the human need for stability and dignity.
The Missing Human Context
What makes this technological logic so dangerous isn’t the logic itself, but what it excludes. By treating humans as rational actors in economic models, tech systems systematically ignore the psychological, sociological, and anthropological dimensions of human existence. A dating app might use perfect logical matching algorithms while completely missing the chemistry and spontaneity that create actual connections. A content platform might optimize for watch time while destroying attention spans and critical thinking. The logic works perfectly within its narrow frame while creating catastrophic externalities outside it.
History’s Warning About Technological Hubris
The parallels to the early 20th century are deeper than surface comparisons. Both periods represent moments when technological capability dramatically outpaced wisdom about its application. The industrial revolution created unprecedented wealth and convenience while also enabling unprecedented destruction through genocide and total war. Today’s digital revolution follows the same pattern – creating miraculous connectivity while also building the infrastructure for surveillance capitalism, algorithmic manipulation, and social fragmentation. The common thread is treating humans as components in systems rather than complex beings with inherent dignity.
Building Technology With Wisdom, Not Just Logic
The solution isn’t abandoning logic but contextualizing it within human wisdom. Truly transformative technology must balance efficiency with empathy, optimization with ethics, and data with discernment. This requires technologists who understand history, psychology, philosophy, and the humanities – not just computer science and mathematics. The most dangerous technologies aren’t those that fail logically, but those that succeed too well at solving the wrong problems or creating new, more dangerous ones in their solutions. The future belongs to those who can build systems that serve human flourishing, not just logical consistency.
