TransforM invites you to our Seminar Series where sociologist Olivier Alexandre will take us on a revealing tour of Silicon Valley to show how an industry works, and how that industry works upon the world.
Based on extensive ethnographic research on this industry’s singular milieu, its prominent personalities and vibrant networks, his research captures the way its denizens live, think, relate, and innovate, and how they shape the very code and conduct of business itself.
Embedded deep within the community, he reports back on the motivations, ambitions, and radical vision guiding tech companies. From the conquest of space to quantum computing, engineers have recast the infinitely large and small. Some scientists predict the end of death and the replacement of human beings with machines. But at what cost? Alexandre sees a shadow hanging over the Valley, jeopardizing its future and the economy made in its image. Critical yet fair, Tech illuminates a new world of perpetual revolution.
About the speaker
Prof. Dr. Olivier Alexandre is associate research professor at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), and Deputy Director and founding member its Center for Internet and Society. He is also a former visiting scholar of Northwestern and Stanford Universities. He published Tech. When Silicon Valley Remakes the World, in September 2025 (Univ. of California Press).
About the event
This is an in-person event. No registration is needed.
TransforM’s Seminar Series is a space for cross-disciplinary conversation on transformative technologies and their socio-economic impact. It brings leading academics and international experts for open, research-driven discussions on the technologies reshaping our economies, institutions and everyday lives.
