Episode 133: Silicon Valley vs. Science Fiction: Ayn Rand

The movie poster for The Fountainhead, based on one of Ayn Rand’s most famous novels

One science fiction author has influenced the leaders of the tech industry more than any other: Ayn Rand, who preached radical selfishness in Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead. How has Rand's vision shaped the technology we use today? To find out more, we talk to philosopher Matt Zwolinski and author Matt Ruff.

Notes, citations & etc.

Author Matt Ruff’s website, plus Matt Ruff on Twitter

Ruff is the author of Sewer, Gas & Electric, a novel that features a tiny copy of Ayn Rand as a character.

Philosopher Matt Zwolinski teaches at University of San Diego. He wrote a critique of Rand a few years ago.

Zwolinski is the co-author, with John Tomasi, of The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism, a book that shows how libertarianism originally included progressive movements including abolitionism, before becoming purely an anti-communist doctrine.

Mean Girl by NYU professor Lisa Duggan is a great primer on Rand’s life and works.

Douglas Rushkoff’s book Survival of the Richest shows how Silicon Valley billionaires are scheming to create a real-life version of Galt’s Gulch from Atlas Shrugged, where their henchmen will wear shock collars to ensure obedience. Many reviewers have noticed the Rand parallel.

This 2016 article from Vanity Fair details the “cult of Ayn Rand” in Silicon Valley.

Lisa Duggan appeared on the Spectator's Book Club podcast in 2021 along with Adam Roberts, and she talked about Rand’s influence on tech as well as culture at large.

Ayn Rand was heavily inspired by real-life serial killer William Hickman. Her first attempt at fiction was essentially real-person fanfic about Hickman.

Charlie Jane reviewed all three Atlas Shrugged movies, and the headline for the second film review is “Atlas Shrugged II: The Wrath of Keynes!”

Rush’s 2112 is heavily influenced by Rand’s work. Drummer Neal Peart was a huge Rand fan.

The best response to Rand’s philosophy, not surprisingly, is N.K. Jemisin’s brilliant story Emergency Skin. The audiobook is especially great.