Masters of Exit

Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Curtis Yarvin, Balaji Srinivasan. All Silicon Valley movers and shakers. All men with one shared ideal: to deploy cutting-edge technology to exit the world as it is and create new worlds as they want them to be. Bloomberg journalist Gian Volpicelli’s white-knuckle ride of a book takes us through some of the more far-fetched early manifestations of the exit philosophy – such as autonomous ocean platforms – to a contemporary world where tech CEOs fancy themselves monarchs of ‘startup societies’ in Honduras, Malaysia and Montenegro, and where politicians who believe in their precepts are trying to transform entire countries into startups. En route, he explores the intellectual background of the tech tribes making for the exit. He explains why true believers have so little faith in existing nation states and liberal democracy (hence Curtis Yarvin’s campaign to Retire All Government Employees and Elon Musk’s chainsaw approach to ‘Government Efficiency’). And he examines the core elements of the world they dream to build: cryptocurrency, AI, life extension, space travel – and flying cars. If you want to understand what Silicon Valley billionaires are seeking to achieve, and what the world of the future might look like if they have their way, then this book will prove required reading. If you think that world won’t come to pass, think again.