Silicon Valley’s Sociocultural System Emerges
A look at the emerging sociocultural system of Silicon Valley from an anthropology perspective and why it's important for humanity and the world.
Out of Silicon Valley have come a wave of technologies that have helped transform the world over the past half century. We are connected as a species unlike ever before. Able to share ideas, innovate in fascinating ways and overall, improve the human condition. It hasn’t all been perfect, but then that is the nature of humans and the evolution of the technologies we create.
When humans come together in groups, we form certain behaviours to create what we call today culture. The larger we gather and the more we do and the more complex we get, we form sociocultural systems. I believe we are beginning to see such a sociocultural system emerging out of Silicon Valley. It’s taken nearly seventy years to emerge.
My theory of this emerging sociocultural system comes from spending a lot of time in Silicon Valley and its geographical surrounds over the past 25 years. My observations as a cultural anthropologist working with small startups to well established technology giants and launching a number of technologies into global markets. Work I continue to do.
This is not meant as a critique and I am trying my best to avoid inherent biases. A truer, more nuanced and structured analysis would need a longer study, a lot of ethnographic work and the combined skills of sociologists and anthropologists. So this is a very brief, high-level overview.
Why is it important though, to have such a discussion? Some of the most profound, globally impactful ond beneficial technologies of today arose from this region. Understanding the emerging sociocultural system can help us gain insight into what may come next and how we might better find ways to get the best out of such technological advances to improve humanity.
First I will explore what a sociocultural system is. Next I will very briefly outline what I think are the elements that have lead to this emerging sociocultural system.
What Is a Sociocultural System?
Essentially it is when three concepts come together; society, culture and a system that brings it all together. They vary in size and complexity and are mutable, always in flux and evolving. Yet will hold certain characteristics. It is a concept used often in anthropology.
The sociocultural system we see in Silicon Valley today is a result of decades of people coming together and making really cool things. There wasn’t much of a system in the mid 1950’s. It is believed that it all came about through one company, Shockley Semiconductor, then Intel and off it went, a new Wild West. There’s a good article on the history of Silicon Valley here and how it’s changed from a socioeconomic perspective.
Over time, vast amounts of wealth have been, and continue to be, accumulated. People from around the world poured in. As the technologies progressed, cultural elements began to form. Education systems became deeply embedded in servicing the technology companies, as did governments and lawmakers. Systems started to evolve. This is quite normal in any geographical region, when humans start to rally around something. In the past, this has typically been around a resource such as coal, oil, gold, diamonds.
In Silicon Valley, it revolved, quite literally, around silicon. Sand. As it became easier and cheaper to develop and deploy technologies such as software and the internet became more broadly available, cultural elements began to emerge and solidify. The rituals and customs around startups, the deployment of capital, norms, traditions, behaviours.
As some people became increasingly influential and gained power, so the dynamics of power began to have significant influence over the formation of today’s sociocultural system we see in Silicon Valley. Again, this is fairly typical and it would be surprising if it hadn’t.
So what are the sociocultural elements that make up what we see in Silicon Valley? I’m largely summarising here and I’m sure other anthropologists and sociologists would have some great insights to add. This is a loose set of hypotheses, a starting point if you will.
The Sociocultural Elements of Silicon Valley
Social Hierarchies
At the top of the social hierarchy are venture capitalists, high net worth individuals and of course, charismatic CEOs. High profile CEOs who are often founders or co-founders, gain a celebrity status. All societies have varying forms of hierarchies. Power, influence and how one fits into this system varies, but goes back even to our foraging ancestors. If you’re smart, diligent and have an ability to network, anyone has an opportunity to rise in a social system.
Social classes are a fundamental feature of all societies in the world. Out of them are formed the ideas and frameworks we use to govern our societies such as Rule of Law, political systems and so on. Silicon Valley’s sociocultural system works within the macro level sociocultural system of the United States. And as with all sub-systems, there is at times frictions and constant tensions, all aspects of systems.
A Clergy Class
A religious caste or structure is common across many cultures. How they work, their nature, influence and role varies widely. If one was to assign a clerical class to Silicon Valley I think this would be the Humanity+, or transhumanist movement. This is, as I’ve described before, what is called in anthropology a Revitalization Movement who’s views and opinions vary a fair degree and there isn’t yet an agreed upon, singular ideology. But it is evolving.
Some see humanity’s survival resting on us completely merging our biological selves with digital technologies. Doing things like uploading our brains (minds) to a hard drive where we can live forever. Impalnting technologies into our bodies (some already do this) and which we see through companies like Neuralink, Neirosky and Kernel among others.
The thought leaders, high priests and priestesses if you like, of this clerical class are people like Martine Rothblatt, Nick Bostrom, Aubrey de Grey, Elon Musk, Natasha Vita-Moore, David Pearce and Ray Kurzweil among others. This movement influences a lot of the development of Artificial Intelligence and other technologies.
An Economic System
Some suggest that Silicon Valley’s emerging preferred economic model is less libertaria and becoming more feudalistic in nature. There are elements of both. It has evolved a system of wealth creation and distribution. It is largely overseen by wealthy entrepreneurs, some tech leaders and venture capitalists. To succeed within the sociocultural framework of Silicon Valley one must play by the rules of this system. Some do, some don’t. But it exists.
Means of Production
This is a fundamental element of modern capitalism as an economic system. Humans have been playing about with all kinds of economic systems for thousands of years. As we moved out of feudalism into capitalism, the means of controlling production changed.
The means of production in Silicon Valley today begin with data as the raw material. It is then processed by turning data into information through analytics tools and software. Once these tools are created we can then produce knowledge, from knowledge we can apply it to create wealth through actions. This has enabled the concept of the surveillance economy that relies on the harnessing of personal and social data. It also enables a greater division of labour, such as through knowledge workers.
Almost all businesses today rely on the production of knowledge to run the business, from manufacturing to digital products and services. This model enables Silicon Valley to concentrate wealth and thus formed the development of the sociocultural system that has arisen as a result. From this basis we can begin to see cultural elements form such as behaviours, norms and values and traditions.
Major elites have become a sort of superordinate class controlling the means of production. Startups and tech companies and their workers along with broader societies that rely on these technologies have become subordinates.
Ideology
In the 1950’s, there wasn’t really an ideology. In 2000, the Cluetrain Manifesto was published by some highly influential Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Although focused on marketing, it was, perhaps, the first inkling of an ideology forming in Silicon Valley. In 2023, the next, more detailed manifesto was published by venture capitalist Marc Andreeson as the Techn-Optimist Manifesto. Marc says it isn’t a manifesto, but it meets all the criteria of one.
While not everyone in Silicon Valley adheres to the techno-optimist ideology, it is predominant. An ideology applied to varying degrees across this sociocultural group. There are other ideologies.
Norms and Behaviours
Norms and behaviours are core elements of all cultures and vary widely around the world. In Silicon Valley we see behavioural elements such as eschewing alcohol, constantly trying to be as productive as possible, measuring every moment of our lives. Attempting to quantify everything. Criticizing or negativity towards emerging technologies that are believed by the culture to be the next-big-thing is frowned upon and can lead to being outcast in social circles and activities. I’m being brief and summarizing here.
Systems of Knowledge
Education and the accumulation and disbursement of knowledge is a key part of any sociocultural system. Has been for thousands of years. Where these were largely oral until the Romans and Greeks started writing everything down, today we have educational institutions and we put everything (mostly) on hard drives.
Stanford and the University of California have become central players in this knowledge system. Large tech companies too have developed their own education systems. Thought they’re mostly designed to train people in their systems and to attract potential employees.
Systems such as the agile methodology of software development arose in Oregon, close to Silicon Valley, and became the primary means of digital production into the 21st century. It has been transferred around the world.
Geopolitical Influence
In 2023 there was a lot of geopolitical fuss over fabs, the name for factories that make chips. Without chips our devices are useless. Chips came out of Silicon Valley and kicked off the Digital Age we are entering. How startups are created and grown, software development methodologies and so much more have come from Silicon Valley over the decades and spread around the world.
This gives Silicon Valley a kind of soft power and global influence. Other societies apply this knowledge in different ways, as cultures always do. But the influence of Silicon Valley can’t be overstated and has been vital to humanity’s technological progress for nearly 70 years.
Values
Silicon Valley’s value systems began as a sort of Wild West mentality, incredibly pioneering and entrepreneurial. An expression of the innovative nature of America that has made it the country it is today.
It’s hard to say exactly what the values are in this emerging sociocultural system. It seems as if they are undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts today. Libertarian values are perhaps dominant, but even they are evolving, in some ways dystopian in other ways more socialist, but always overarching is capitalism.
Creator Class
Outside of the tech giants and software factories, Silicon Valley has long had a subculture, a creator class if you will. This too is tied to the evolution of Silicon Valley itself. The stories of mavericks inventing computers and other technologies in their garages. Around and in Silicon Valley are maker studios where brilliant minds are toying with technologies that will play significant roles in the next wave of technologies that will help humanity progress and advance, her on Earth and perhaps, eventually, out amongst the stars. That will enable us to live for hundreds of years.
A thriving creator class is incredibly important to a healthy sociocultural system. Silicon Valley has a very healthy creator class.
Concluding
As any anthropologist will tell you, cultures are mutable, always evolving and ever changing. Customs, norms, values and traditions are in constant flux. Some may last centuries, but always, eventually change. Even the Amish are beginning to adopt mobile phones A culture that has very strict rules when it comes to the use of technology.
How those outside of Silicon Valley feel about this emerging sociocultural system will vary widely. I’ve just scratched the surface here. I’ve missed a lot. Books could be written. Many aspects of Silicon Valley ideologies, practices and systems have been written about by philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists, economists and psychologists. But I think we are now able to see consistent patterns to begin defining a sociocultural system.
The technologies that have come out of Silicon Valley have, in the overarching timeline of humanity, made our world a better place. Silicon Valley has a geographical location, south of San Francisco, but San Francisco is inevitably tied to the Valley. In a way Silicon Valley has become more than a place. It is an idea, a view and for most in Silicon Valley, they see it as a culture on a mission to help humanity progress.
How that happens no one can predict and any prediction would not be true. But that a sociocultural system is emerging with understandable characteristics and becoming a fixture in an increasingly globally connected society is fascinating to watch. As has always been the way in human progress and technology, at times it will be messy, but overall, humans benefit from technological progress.