In the 1990s, a small group of men in Silicon Valley imagined a world without governments or rules – a world run by code. They called themselves the cypherpunks, and they believed technology could replace politics entirely.

Those ideas didn’t stay online. They shaped the culture of the tech industry, which in turn has reshaped Western civilisation itself. Now, the billionaires behind it all are trying to remake democracy in their image.

Today, writer and contributor to The Monthly, Elmo Keep, on how Silicon Valley’s most dangerous philosophy escaped the internet and entered the real world.

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Guest: Writer and contributor to The Monthly, Elmo Keep

Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein