The Beginning of Silicon Dreams

Laying the Foundation for a Digital Fairytale

Lesson 1: Writing Silicon Dreams

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the first lesson, and I’m super excited to be doing this with all of you. This is a unique opportunity to explore one of the most transformative periods in modern history—the rise of the web and AI—and to craft a compelling story about it. Together, we’ll create a fairytale for the digital age.

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What Is Silicon Dreams?

Silicon Dreams is inspired by Francis Spufford’s Red Plenty, a book that tells the story of the Soviet Union’s grand dream to outdo capitalism. In the same way, our project will explore the rise of the digital revolution—a dream of a democratic web and a high-tech utopia—and how reality, with its monopolies, manipulation, and misinformation, reshaped those hopes.

We’ll write what Spufford called "not a novel, nor a history, but a fairy tale." Silicon Dreams will blend historical facts with fictional characters, examining pivotal moments like the DotCom bubble, the rise of Google, social media's transformation, and AI's growing dominance.

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Stepping Back: The Digital Revolution

Let me step back here and discuss how fundamental the changes of the 21st century have been. As with earlier industrial revolutions—steam and mechanization, steel and electricity—[see Carlota Perez’s work]—the digital era, which began with the advent of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s, has utterly transformed nearly every aspect of our lives.

The world we’re living in today would seem like science fiction two decades ago. Think of it: entire economies reshaped, relationships mediated by screens, and information accessible instantly—but not always truthfully. These changes have not been all good.

Bringing this pivotal period in modern history to life in a creative project like this is not just a great reading experience—it’s also historically significant. By examining how our world evolved from optimism to disillusionment, and perhaps even to hope again, we can better understand where we stand today.

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A Personal Perspective