Silicon Valley’s Inner Life: Is Marc Andreessen a Philosophical Zombie?

Elizabeth Lopatto analyzes Marc Andreessen’s comments about introspection, arguing his reading of Nick Chater’s The Mind Is Flat misinterprets Freud’s ideas and the nature of consciousness. The piece frames the idea of an “inner self” as an illusion, critiques Andreessen’s assertions about memory and thinking, and uses the dispute to critique Silicon Valley’s culture of self-analysis, concluding that Andreessen embodies a modern philosophical zombie and that external reality and action should take precedence over inward rumination.