Henry Farrell

Does Silicon Valley Dream of Philip K. Dick?

“Silicon Valley likes to dress its ambitions in the glistening garb of science fiction from the 1950s, when authors such as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke spun tales of humanity spreading through the stars.  But what kind of future are we really hurtling towards? Increasingly, it is looking much more like the one anticipated by the drugged-up 1960s oeuvre of Philip K Dick, filled with deranged billionaires, machines that claim consciousness, hallucinated worlds and political breakdown.”

On August 8, 2026, Dan Wang and I wrote the Weekend Essay for the Financial Times.

Other Writing:

Academic Article

Introduction: Blogs, Politics and Power – with Daniel W. Drezner

September 27, 2007 Bloggers Blogs Internet
There is good reason to believe that blogs are changing politics, but we don’t know exactly how. Nor do we know whether the normative consequences of blogs for poli- tics are likely to be good or bad. In this special issue, we and our co-authors undertake the first sustained effort to map the empirical and ...
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Chapter in an Edited Volume

“Social Institutions among Economists in the Wake of the Financial Crisis,” in Economy and Society in Europe: A Relationship in Crisis – eds. Luigi Burroni, Maarten Keune and Gugliemo Mardi

May 18, 2012 eds. Luigi Burroni Maarten Keune and Gugliemo Mardi Edward Elgar: 2012
While an economy is always ‘embedded’ in society, the relationship between the two is undergoing profound changes in Europe, resulting in widespread instability which is emphasised by the current crisis. This book analyses these changes, and in particular pressures of intensifying international competition, globalization and financialization within Europe. Henry Farrell, “Social Institutions among Economists in ...
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