by Paulina Borsook
Nov. 28, 2000
Wrong.
My new book, Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High-Tech, describes the religion of high-tech, if religion is understood to be a set of mostly unconscious, commonly-held, collective beliefs. And religion, like all human culture, perseveres, even when regimes change (or fail to ' witness the 2000 elections.)
For example, consider the case of Cisco, that fine company which, along with Al Gore, brought you and continues to bring you the Internet. Cisco has a valuation far far in excess of any Old Economy company you can think of, and is one of the Big Three of the New Economy ' Intel and Microsoft being the other two.
Related coverage:
Cyberselfish
Free-Form Reform
The Net as Ponzi Scheme Funny thing, Cisco ended up paying no federal income tax last year. Amazing what you can do with the wonders of stock-option accounting. But what's even more amazing, and more telling, is that folks all over Northern California high-tech think this a fine thing: Cisco creates jobs and wealth and isn't this enough?
Yet, as I wrote in the introductory chapter to my book: