Tech
Vitalik Buterin’s response to Marc Andreessen’s ‘techno-optimism’
Vitalik Buterin is best known for creating the world’s second most valuable blockchain, Ethereum, when he was just 19 years old. In recent years, however, Buterin’s influence has extended far beyond the world of cryptocurrencies and into the broader realm of ideas where the young polymath, who taught himself Mandarin while traveling the world, offers important treatises on technology and the future.
The latest example is a 10,000-word essay Buterin published this week titled “My techno-optimism.” It is a response to the much-discussed “manifesto” of a similar title by the influential venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Buterin’s article supports many elements of the manifesto, including the assertion that technology has brought wonderful benefits to humanity and that fear and overzealous regulation have limited progress in fields such as biotechnology. But while he advocates a “foot on the accelerator” approach, especially to solving the climate change crisis, Buterin also calls for a more cautious approach when it comes to artificial intelligence.
While the creator of Ethereum has long been a leading thinker in computer science, he has also become a leading thinker in the governance of technology and society. Here’s Buterin on the collapse of OpenAI and the problem of putting guardrails on the technology through little advice from elite decision makers:
“[It was] a well-intentioned effort to balance the need to make a profit to satisfy the investors who provide the seed money with the desire to have a check and balance to counteract moves that risk OpenAI blowing up the world. In practice, however, they are recent attempt to fire Sam Altman makes the structure look like a total failure: it centralized power in an undemocratic and unaccountable council of five people, who made key decisions based on secret information and refused to provide details of their arguments until the employees threatened to quit en masse.”
Drawing on his experience trying to build decentralized communities in the realm of Ethereum, Buterin provides important new insights into how to think about artificial intelligence, including how to avoid the very real possibility that humans end up as pets for machine overlords. Of course he is certainly not the only one with great ideas about the future of technology. But what sets Buterin apart is his deep capacity for empathy and lack of ego.
Unlike Andreessen and Balaji Srinivasan, another tech genius whose ideas carry a lot of weight in the technology debate, Buterin does not look down on those who disagree with him and does not frame the debate in the shrill us-against-they tone of the venture capital elite.
“I believe these [technologies] are profoundly good, and that further expanding humanity’s reach to the planets and stars is profoundly good, because I believe humanity is profoundly good,” he writes. In a troubled time when too many people are consumed by fear and negativity, it’s welcome to read a tech genius who relies on empathetic persuasion. If you want a shorter, more accessible window into Buterin’s worldview, you can also check it out these new questions and answers from Fortune, which includes the moral rationale for supporting Ukraine and the fascinating science fiction realm of the popular book and film The Three-Body Problem. Good weekend.
Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
@jeffjohnroberts
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