The end of Silicon Valley has been declared. Myths of self-made billionaires and individual geniuses are being dismantled as Big Tech experiences one of the biggest critical backlashes in recent decades.

Tech billionaires are not just fleeing the Californian Bay Area for Austin, Texas; they are planning for more fundamental exits. Some are establishing self-governed floating city-states through seasteading, preparing for an environmental apocalypse in New Zealand or a societal upheaval in secretive bunkers. Others are promising new civilizations on Mars or in virtual reality, while some are investing in biotechnology with the ambition of conquering nothing less than death itself.

The international conference {Futures} loading… will take place on November 15th and 16th at Leuphana University Lüneburg and online, bringing together scholars and researchers of social and cultural studies to discuss the politics, ethnographies, and histories of the future.

This conference marks the final stage of a three-year long project "Future-Making: Past and present Futures of the Silicon Valley" carried out by the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana and funded by the VolkswagenStiftung, led by Professors Götz Bachmann, Paula Bialski and Claus Pias. With contributions by Morgan Ames, Yaëlle Amsallem, Richard Barbrook, Joseph Davidson, Felix Hüttemann, Annika Lübben, Rodrigo Nunes, Émile P. Torres and Anna-Verena Nosthoff.