# Silicon Valley’s forgotten formula for genius > Tech leaders microdose while Silicon Valley forgets its 1960s roots for innovation. - Title: Silicon Valley’s forgotten formula for genius | Shortify - Summary: Tech leaders microdose while Silicon Valley forgets its 1960s roots for innovation. Silicon Valley’s current AI boom lacks the cultural creativity of 1960s… - Keywords: silicon valley, tech bros, psychedelics, 1960s, engelbart, mccarthy, xerox parc, whole earth catalog, acid tests, human potential, tech utopianism, Silicon - Source: The San Francisco Standard — https://sfstandard.com/2026/10/13/silicon-valley-psychedelics-sixties-genius - Author: John Markoff - Published: 2026-10-13T13:00:00+00:00 - Read time: 1 min - Topics: silicon valley, ai, tech bros, psychedelics, 1960s, engelbart, mccarthy, xerox parc, whole earth catalog, acid tests, human potential, tech utopianism ## Tech leaders microdose Tech executives brag about microdosing regimens as if it were 1966. > Can I have some, please? ## President signs psychedelic order President Donald Trump signed an executive order allocating $50 million for psychedelic research. > Can I have some, please? ## 1960s tech labs Three Stanford labs produced personal computing and the internet during Vietnam War chaos. > The Grateful Dead, slide projectors, strobe lights, and 10,000 attendees packed into a labor union hall transformed into one immersive event ## Acid Tests and innovation Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests inspired multimedia events that shaped early tech demonstrations. > The Grateful Dead, slide projectors, strobe lights, and 10,000 attendees packed into a labor union hall transformed into one immersive event ## Engelbart’s demo Engelbart demonstrated the mouse and hypertext at the 1968 Fall Joint Computer Conference. > The mouse, a windowing display, hypertext, and real-time collaboration with researchers at stanford research institute in menlo park ## The edge of chaos Biology explains why 1963-1973 was the peak of Silicon Valley’s creative potential. > Systems that sit between fully ordered and fully chaotic appear where genuine novelty in nature appears ## Tech utopianism Early Silicon Valley focused on tools for human empowerment, not profit. > Engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs who believed the tools they built would make the world more humane ## Current tech culture Today’s Silicon Valley prioritizes profit over purpose in AI development. > Technology was supplanted by money as the defining coin of the realm ## AI boom consequences AI investment has concentrated talent but reduced cultural creativity in Silicon Valley. > The result is a region that is vastly wealthier and intellectually narrower ## The missing culture Artists and activists who questioned technology have been priced out of Silicon Valley. > The surrounding culture that once pressed the laboratories about purpose has been priced out ## Tech utopianism fading Original Silicon Valley values are drowned out by competing ideologies. > There are naked capitalists like thiel and marc andreasen, effective altruist-adjacent executives ## What’s next? Silicon Valley must redefine technology’s purpose in an era of AI disruption. > What is needed is a cultural revolution, one that takes shape in an intense decade ## Key takeaway Silicon Valley’s current AI boom lacks the cultural creativity of 1960s tech labs that prioritized human potential over profit.