Tech Mogul: Government In The Dark On Tech Innovations

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On this edition of Being Libertarian Presents, Charles Peralo interviews tech legend Robert Scoble, most known for his blog Scobleizer during his tenure as a technical evangelist for Microsoft. He currently works for Upload VR, a news site covering the latest in virtual and augmented reality tech.

In starting off about the progression of technology, he noted that – like in the case of Pokemon Go’s rise – “if you match technology with an existing brand” you can “change the world quickly.” Scoble pointed out that the main basis of the game Pokemon Go has existed for almost four years now, in Niantic’s other game “Ingress” – which utilizes the same exact augmented reality technology that Pokemon Go now uses.

In terms of his politics, Scoble mentioned that he was a “hardcore Republican back in the 80’s” who had a picture of Reagan hanging on the wall, but is now a “moderate Democrat” and self-proclaimed centrist who “can’t stand the Republican Party and what they’ve done.” Scoble believes that the Republicans and their push to forward social conservatism is “taking America down a bad path.”

In discussing Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, he merely dismissed the idea of a third party candidate, saying “America is a two party system, and its that way for a reason,” also expressing that he doesn’t see the Libertarian ticket as “electable” and that it keeps him from taking them seriously. He doesn’t want to vote for “anything other than the one that’s actually going to replace [Trump],” which is Hillary. He does, however “love their politics,” and believes that “Libertarianism is very attractive to [him]”

When it comes to technology and social media influencing politics, Scoble asserted that Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the most important three media sources involved, and Snapchat is on the rise. Scoble also pointed out that while technology has come far, he believes that certain advances on technology like self-driving cars are “going to put people out of work,” and kill jobs. He says we are “clueless on how to prepare people” for the quickly advancing world of technology. Scoble also noted that our public school system is highly flawed, and was meant for getting people ready for factory jobs, for example. He believes we should start over, and “change our idea of what school is.”

In an issue where he can agree with libertarians, Scoble noted that the War on Drugs is “ridiculous, and we all know it,” and he hopes that California hopes to pass Proposition 64 law this November and legalize marijuana. Though, directly afterwards, he noted that on the issue of privatizing security via drone technology, he doesn’t believe drones are a viable option for policing and maintaining security.

In closing, Scoble was asked to give one sentence about his thoughts on each candidate. He called Clinton “smart and rational,” asserted Johnson has an “interesting ideology, [but] not going to win,” and expressed his belief that Trump should not be let “anywhere near the White House.”

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