--- title: ‘Cyberselfish’ author takes aim at techno-libertarianism... description: Paulina Borsook's 'Cyberselfish', first published in 2000, is being reissued by Tin House after years out of print. In an interview, Borsook argues that... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/cyberselfish-author-takes-aim-at-techno-libertarianism-as-her-book-returns-from-the-dead-hzjeilkoz twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: ‘Cyberselfish’ author takes aim at techno-libertarianism as her book returns from the dead | daily.dev og:description: Paulina Borsook's 'Cyberselfish', first published in 2000, is being reissued by Tin House after years out of print. In an interview, Borsook argues that... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/cyberselfish-author-takes-aim-at-techno-libertarianism-as-her-book-returns-from-the-dead-hzjeilkoz og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/hZjeIlkOz.png og:image:alt: ‘Cyberselfish’ author takes aim at techno-libertarianism as her book returns from the dead og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # ‘Cyberselfish’ author takes aim at techno-libertarianism as her book returns from the dead **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 16 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Paulina Borsook's 'Cyberselfish', first published in 2000, is being reissued by Tin House after years out of print. In an interview, Borsook argues that Silicon Valley's techno-libertarian 'basket of beliefs' is violently anti-regulation despite tech benefiting heavily from government support. She traces a shift to the Netscape IPO, when 'finance bros' entered the industry, and says that attitude never corrected after the dot-com crash. She calls current AI investment 'a big Ponzi scheme' and says used copies of her book began rising in price about a year and a half ago before the new edition, which keeps the original text unchanged with a new introduction by Gil Durán. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is techno-libertarianism according to Paulina Borsook's book Cyberselfish? It is a basket of beliefs in Silicon Valley that is violently anti-regulation, rooted in bad analogies from biology like 'let things evolve and they will be fine.' Paulina Borsook argues this view ignores how much government subsidy and R&D funding made the tech industry's success possible, despite the sector benefiting more and suffering less from government than almost any other. _Developers weighing tech's relationship with regulation can follow this debate as it unfolds on daily.dev._ ### When was Cyberselfish by Paulina Borsook originally published and why is it being reissued? Cyberselfish was first published in 2000 and had gone out of print before being reissued in a new edition by Tin House. Interest revived after 'Nerd Reich' author Gil Durán publicly championed the book, used copies started rising in price about a year and a half before the reissue, and European academics began reaching out to Borsook. The new edition keeps the original text unchanged and adds a new introduction by Durán. _Readers tracking how older tech criticism resurfaces can follow book and media trends on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Historian Jill Lepore says Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy](https://daily.dev/posts/historian-jill-lepore-says-silicon-valley-misreads-science-fiction-and-undermines-democracy-ckoucyvdo) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How Silicon Valley enshittified the internet](https://daily.dev/posts/how-silicon-valley-enshittified-the-internet-1tjdybxuj) · The Verge · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Using the internet like its 1999](https://daily.dev/posts/using-the-internet-like-its-1999-hfy00usnz) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Anti-AI nostalgia and the cult of the past](https://daily.dev/posts/anti-ai-nostalgia-and-the-cult-of-the-past-vezwpo8sn) · sean goedecke · 9 upvotes · 4 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#ethics](https://daily.dev/tags/ethics) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/cyberselfish-author-takes-aim-at-techno-libertarianism-as-her-book-returns-from-the-dead-hzjeilkoz) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"‘Cyberselfish’ author takes aim at techno-libertarianism as her book returns from the dead","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cyberselfish-author-takes-aim-at-techno-libertarianism-as-her-book-returns-from-the-dead-hzjeilkoz","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/cyberselfish-author-takes-aim-at-techno-libertarianism-as-her-book-returns-from-the-dead-hzjeilkoz"},"datePublished":"2026-10-25T20:22:55.689Z","dateModified":"2026-10-25T21:47:11.183Z","description":"Paulina Borsook's 'Cyberselfish', first published in 2000, is being reissued by Tin House after years out of print. 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Paulina Borsook argues this view ignores how much government subsidy and R\u0026D funding made the tech industry's success possible, despite the sector benefiting more and suffering less from government than almost any other. Developers weighing tech's relationship with regulation can follow this debate as it unfolds on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"When was Cyberselfish by Paulina Borsook originally published and why is it being reissued?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Cyberselfish was first published in 2000 and had gone out of print before being reissued in a new edition by Tin House. Interest revived after 'Nerd Reich' author Gil Durán publicly championed the book, used copies started rising in price about a year and a half before the reissue, and European academics began reaching out to Borsook. The new edition keeps the original text unchanged and adds a new introduction by Durán. Readers tracking how older tech criticism resurfaces can follow book and media trends on daily.dev."}}]} ```