I recall an era of my younger years when guys like me, young men who spent more time with screens and keyboards than sports equipment, played a cynical mantra over and over in our hearts: the geeks will inherit the earth.

Maybe it came true. 

I took a slightly different path, but the nerd hoards of which I would have proudly called myself a member two decades ago veered into a subculture that stretched their poindexterish mandate into something anti-social and disturbing.

The techbro aesthetic is geek chic, sure, but also, arguably, strays into a venge-fant antisocial  vibe that has in the last decade manifested as: rich, powerful and angry. And, worryingly, in charge of deeply complex systems now entrenched in our social fabric.

I lean into a stereotype on this, of course, but it’s difficult not to look at the slate of tech-billionaires shaping our politics, our societies, and the tone of our discourse with all the algorithmic subtlety of a sledgehammer and wonder if something went deeply wrong there.  

And herein I will point my finger routinely in that direction not as a point of blame but as a reminder of the small-hearted, big-brained men nudging us towards the cliff with a coldly calculated black box of dark emotions.