«Cyberselfish» returns: the 2000 book on Silicon Valley techno-libertarianism is reissued

The book that predicted the industry's turn is back in print

Paulina Borsook's «Cyberselfish», first published in 2000 and long out of print, is returning in a new edition from the publisher Tin House. As TechCrunch reports, the impetus for the renewed interest was last year's call by Gil Duran, author of the book «Nerd Reich», who said that Borsook «saw it all very clearly and tried to warn us 25 years ago». That autumn, The New York Times reported that the book was finding new readers eager to understand, why the tech industry «went off the rails». The new edition will include a foreword by Duran; the text itself remains unchanged — the Tin House editor, according to Borsook, told her: «Don't change a word», since the book remains «an artifact of a time and place».

What Borsook wrote about techno-libertarianism

In an interview with TechCrunch, Borsook described the book as «almost a travelogue» — an attempt to make sense of what she calls the techno-libertarian influence on Silicon Valley culture. She characterizes this worldview as a «basket of beliefs», «staunchly anti-regulatory», even though, in her words, «no sector of society has benefited more from government and suffered from it less than these guys». She began observing this milieu in the early 1990s, and considers the turning point to be Netscape's IPO, after which the valley, in her words, was «taken over by the financiers» and a «make a killing and run» culture emerged. Even after the dot-com crash, she notes, this mindset «was not corrected and spread ever further». In the book, Borsook also divided the valley into «Ravers» (culturally liberal, in the spirit of John Perry Barlow) and «Gilders» (social conservatives, named after George Gilder) — a distinction that, in her view, persists today.

The book's revival and a view of the modern industry

Borsook said that as recently as a year and a half ago, used copies sold for three dollars, but then prices began to climb, and European scholars and strangers on social media started writing to her. Through Duran, who after Steven Levy's Wired piece about «how I got it all so wrong» posted on Bluesky an «incredible tirade» calling for the book to be brought back into print, interest surged sharply — according to Borsook, the book became «impossible to get, either for money or for love». She is critical about the present: AI, in her view, is «a giant Ponzi scheme», and Apple's hydraulic press ad, which crushed creative tools, shows that the company is no longer the one from the 1984 ad. She sees the industry's rapprochement with the Trump administration not as a break, but as a continuation of earlier trends. She also points to specific episodes: Sergey Brin's remark that California «is turning into Soviet Russia»she calls absurd given that the cleanliness of Lake Tahoe is the result of decades of government regulation.

Why it matters

The reissue of «Cyberselfish» shows that a critique of techno-libertarianism written 25 years ago is in demand again — this is indicated both by the rising prices of used copiesand the attention of European scholars, as well as the New York Times piece. For readers, it is a chance to see that debates about the role of government in the tech industry are not new, and for young professionals the question raised in the interview is a practical one: Borsook admits she does not know what to advise those who do not share the ideology of the industry's leaders, since investment is now concentrated in AI. It is not yet known what the print run and reception of the new edition will be — it is only just coming out.