Europe must stop investing in startups; especially with taxpayer money. Startups are a Silicon Valley brand. They’re disposable businesses designed to either fail fast or grow exponentially (like cancer) and exit (be sold) to other surveillance capitalists or to the public (IPO)
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Startups are the long-tail of surveillance capitalism that the monster eats to sustain itself. If unsuccessful, the EU taxpayer foots the bill. If successful, they are snatched up by the Googles and Facebooks. EU becomes Silicon Valley’s taxpayer-supported free R&D department.
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We can do so much better in the EU if we have a bit of imagination and the courage to look beyond the toxic Silicon Valley model of technology. Instead of startups, we should be funding ethical technology and sustainable businesses: let’s call them stayups.
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We should take what works from the Silicon Valley model and leave the toxic funding and business model. What works? Funding small organisations that compete with each other and work iteratively. What doesn’t? An incentive model based on surveillance-based growth and exits.
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So let’s fund businesses that, if successful, cannot be sold. We must move beyond VC/equity capital and remove exits from the equation. Let’s only fund business models that are ethical (see https://ind.ie/ethical-design ).
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Let’s stipulate that getting commons funding means the products of the business must also be shared back with the commons. That’s the only way to avoid a tragedy of the commons and build a healthy public sphere. It would also encourage not just competition but also sharing.
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Silicon Valkey’s model of technology (surveillance capitalism) is not the only way to fund and build technology. It’s just one very toxic way to do so. Let’s do better in the EU. We can, should, and must fund ethical tech from the commons for the common good. (End)
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To Californians/Americans chiming in on this to regurgitate the gospel of Silicon Valley: just stop. It’s not that we don’t understand it; we do only too well & strongly disagree. This isn’t about you. It’s about us, in the EU, trying to avoid your imperialism. Stay in your lane.https://twitter.com/aral/status/1000991960839217152 …
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The responses to this thread are very elucidating. Almost exclusively (with a couple of lovely exceptions to the latter; you know who you are and I love you): * Folks in Europe: enthusiastic support * Folks in California/US: patronising/sarcastic dismissal/defeatism
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If anywhere we have a chance to veer away from surveillance capitalism to build ethical technological infrastructure that protects personhood and nurtures a healthy commons, it’s going to be in the EU. That’s a very big if and cannot happen without a fundamental shift in policy.
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TIL: “Every start-up has the right not to obey a given law to develop a business model” is where France is headed. This is so fucked up!
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Europe already has its own surveillance capitalism, but it does not produce decent user facing software (and probably shitty backends, too). Make no mistake, this is not going to be about surveillance but about competition.
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It's amusing that you think you are dumping on EU development, and forget that many US/Silicon Valley companies have big pockets of development in the EU, including remote workers. The only competition in Europe and the world is with the deep pockets of US investors.
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I meet so many Europeans in US tech companies. Europe may have people to build innovative tech. But the ecosystem to grow technologically disruptive economic entities is very sparse in the EU.
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"Why do you want to create a “Google of Europe?” http://www.paulmcguire.org/articles/articles_the_planned_destruction_of_the_us.html …
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Write this to Angela Merkel!
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hi Aral. Is it possible for your indie project to apply for funding through this? If yes, would you apply?
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