[throwyawayyyy]

Kind of serious question: in tech circles is the Manhattan project generally seen as a _good_ thing, these days? Why use it as the example and not, say, Apollo? "We're working really hard so we can build things with the power to kill you all" is such weird messaging.

[zaptheimpaler]

There is no such thing as "tech circles", tech is now a huge huge industry with 10M people in the US alone and no uniform political beliefs. There are the beliefs of some of the vocal billionaires and VCs which media likes to equate to "tech", but they are a tiny fraction of tech. Presumably he said it because he's a narcissist moron, I don't know.

If I had to describe it, the zeitgeist of VC/Founder tech now is kind of originated in "It's Time to Build" [1]. The diagnosis is that the nation is incapable of doing anything - too hamstrung by bureaucracy, laws, congress gridlock etc. The same kind of things that MAGA uses to justify authoritarianism. The movement now basically prescribes action, agency, urgency, conquest void of any reflection of what the goals should be, any question of morality or values etc.. just build (what you're being told/funded to build).

[1] https://a16z.com/its-time-to-build/