Summary

In Chapter 3, “A Womb with a View: You Are Safe in Your Techno-Bubble,” Rushkoff wonders if The Mindset is the result of money or of technology. He reflects on a time when he was hanging out with “psychedelics philosopher Timothy Leary” in 1990 (36). After Leary read Stewart Brand’s The Media Lab, Leary became upset by Brand’s omission of women in his discussion of digital technology. Leary argued that technocrats have tried to use cyberspace to create a womb. Rushkoff upholds this idea, citing the writings of Nicholas Negroponte, Ray Kurzweil, and Gabe Newell. He specifically considers how technology enabled disconnection during the pandemic. Sites like Google, Amazon, and Zoom are meant as tools for ease and connection, but in fact “undermine our empathy for those outside our . . . bubbles” (40). He argues that online people cannot relate in normal ways because they cannot read...