Russell Berman on Silicon Valley's Thought: From Bildung to Building

Join Russell Berman, the Walter A. Haas Professor of Humanities at Stanford University and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, in an evening where he will describe how the Bildungsbürgertum, the carriers of culture in 19th century Germany, can inform the concomitant acceleration of technological progress and intellectual culture in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is in the midst of an intellectual moment. On the cusp of an era of abundance, enormous amounts of talent, capital, and compute are being leveraged by a technocratic elite increasingly informed by philosophical worldviews. The prevailing ethos behind rapid scaling and moonshot bets has supercharged the abundance of resources with an unencumbered attitude of freedom and progress. On one hand, this combination opens up avenues in the future to fully bring the ideals of our intellectualism to bear on the world. On the other hand, we may be entering Faustian bargains we are not even aware of and using esoteric thinking irresponsibly, finding ourselves in situations of such instability and disorder that we risk the good and very existence of our society... The Collective is embarking on an initiative to convene and chronicle this new intellectual culture as a part of its mission of investigating the conditions of intellectual life that are conducive to human flourishing. ​​Agenda ​​6:00-7:30 pm: Cocktail Hour Meet the Collective with drinks + refreshments. Live jazz provided by the Ethan Feldman Trio. ​​7:30-8:15 pm: Russell Berman The talk will begin and doors will be locked on time. Photography and recording (except for event staff) is prohibited. ​8:15-9:30 pm: Q&A + Moderated Discussion We observe the Chatham House Rule and loosely follow the Liberty Fund Rules. ​​9:30 pm-Late: Oblivion! If you hang around long enough, join us for our signature nightcap of pastel de nata. ​​Attire cocktail attire (jackets required for gentlemen)