HBO’s Silicon Valley is often praised for its comedic, but wholly accurate reflection on the eponymous tech hub of Northern California. This accuracy is achieved with the help of the series’ consultants, though the cast and crew also had their own input on the strange culture of technology, which they shared with us at this year’s PaleyFest.
When panel moderator Stacy Wilson Hunt asked the cast and crew what some of their weirdest tech stories were, series creator Mike Judge and head writer Alec Berg discussed their strange trip to the Amazon headquarters in Seattle, during which the employees stated that their biggest concern with bugging Alexa devices was that it would be “really bad for the company,” laughing that the morality of it all wasn’t even considered.
This lead to further discussion on the strange tech world. Kumail Nanjiani brought up how the developers of a face-switching program thought their technology was “awesome” rather than “frightening.” Zach Woods, contributed with an interesting concept, discussing how social media and other technology are the adaptive measure of the socially inept computer nerds that made it, and that we are all essentially living in a coping mechanism, a concept that received as many murmured conversations of interest as it did laughs.
Another fascinating concept that Judge brought up was the change that the technology world has gone through since the show began. Judge said that over the five years the show has gone on, computer nerds have gone from believing they were gonna save the world with technology to realizing they destroyed it, and now they have to live that truth. Perhaps we will see this notion explored in the upcoming fifth season of HBO’s Silicon Valley.
Catch the season premiere of Silicon Valley this Sunday, March 25 @10pm on HBO
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