硅谷金智复合体及其“自由世界主义”议程

Silicon Valley’s Liberal Cosmopolitan Agenda and the Golden Knowledge Complex

数字化革命带来了经济繁荣,加强了国家间的数字相互依赖,也赋权于一批聚集于硅谷的“科技精英”。执行业之牛耳的科技精英们有独立的政治偏好,他们影响力的本质是什么?应该以什么样的理论来解释?既有文献注重体系层次和国家层次,省略或轻视了个体精英在国际政治经济结构中的施动性。文章建构了一个以结构性权力来解释科技精英的个人政治影响的理论框架——科技精英掌握着较强的生产和知识结构性权力、较弱的金融和安全结构性权力。他们一方面对权力进行“跨结构转化”,另一方面也借助“金智复合体”机制来实现政治影响。结合两种机制,科技精英致力于将“自由世界主义”意识形态嵌入国内和国际政治议程。通过对元宇宙公司首席执行官扎克伯格在国内政治中的“扎克现金”、左翼议题;在国际政治中的“元连接”、天秤币、卫生治理、气候治理等六项行动的过程追踪,文章阐释了上述机制如何被付诸实践。尽管科技精英不会撼动民族国家的基本框架,但仍在争取对Web 3.0时代去中心化的网络活动和“虚拟—现实交互式”空间(元宇宙)的领导权。具有自由世界主义意识形态的科技精英越多,对现存民族国家框架的潜在挑战越大。

The revolution in information and communication technologies(ICT) has brought economic prosperity,while enhancing digital interdependence between states.It has also empowered a group of “tech elites” centered in Silicon Valley.Leading tech elites have their own independent political preferences,which raises important questions:what is the nature of their influence?And what theory should be applied to explain it?Existing literature focuses on the system and state levels,while overlooking or underestimating the role that individual elites can assert within international political and economic structures.This article constructs a theoretical framework based on structural power to explain the personal political influence of technology elites.Technology elites wield significant power vis-à-vis systems of production and knowledge structures,while their influence is weak vis-à-vis financial and security structures.Tech elites can either transfer their power across different structures,or leverage the “Money Idea Complex” to achieve political influence.Combining these two forms of influence,tech elites are able to advance a “liberal cosmopolitan”political agenda at both the national and international levels.Through a review of the Six Leadership Lessons of Meta Company CEO Mark Zuckerburg,this article explains the logic behind this process.While tech elites will not succeed in shaking the basic foundations of the state-based system,they are still seeking leadership power through decentralized network activities and virtual reality(metaverse)spaces in the Web 3.0 era.As the ranks of tech elites with liberal cosmopolitan ideologies expand,they will continue to represent a greater challenge to the nation-state-based system.