"Last Wednesday, a lone gunman sent a single bullet through the neck of Charlie Kirk as he spoke in an open-air forum on the campus of Utah Valley University in Provo. Given that this shooting took place 800 miles away and in a state that bears little cultural resemblance to ours here in the Bay Area, it would be easy enough for us to momentarily mourn the rising cost of U.S. political violence, shrug our shoulders and then move on."
"Silicon Valley, broadly defined, produces so much economic, intellectual and technological capital that it has become the envy of the world. Government, civic and business leaders come here from all corners of the Earth to learn what makes our culture and economy tick. And, most importantly, Silicon Valley constitutes the beating heart of the dominant digital culture that effectively rules much of the world."
"But that brings us to why the death of Charlie Kirk cannot be a moment where we simply shrug and move on. Whatever else is true, reporting suggests that the alleged killer 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was deeply immersed in the online world. He was, as best we can tell, a cipher shaped by the flows of bits and bytes across screens."
A shooting that wounded Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University raises concern beyond geographic distance. Silicon Valley generates unparalleled economic, intellectual and technological capital and houses major digital titans including OpenAI, Meta, Alphabet, Apple, Intel, Nvidia, Oracle, Salesforce, Adobe and HP. These companies exert vast control over information flows worldwide as humans become increasingly integrated with digital devices, effectively creating pervasive influence over collective perception. Reporting indicates the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was deeply immersed in online spaces and appears shaped by digital flows. The intersection of concentrated digital power and online immersion amplifies risks of political violence and cannot be ignored.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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