When we launched WIRED, we were accused of being Pangloss­ian optimists. I embraced that as a badge of honor. The Digital Revolution was reinventing everything, and that was good. Twenty-five years on, that optimism is no longer justified—it’s necessary. Indeed: militant optimism. WIRED’s premise was that the most powerful people on the planet weren’t the politicians or generals, priests or pundits, but the people creating and using new technology.

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