In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Silicon Valley cultivated a very specific image. The global headquarters of the tech industry was a place of radical change, where the cutting edge was prioritised. Optimism about a new future was in the mission statement of most companies. Even the bad press – such as that which described Silicon Valley as a haven for navel-gazing weirdos, a hub of naively idealistic views about how tech could change the world – still suggested it was doing things differently. Tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs became celebrities in their own right because of how unusual they were. Silicon Valley was, above all else, about breaking from tradition.
In the last few years, however, that image has shifted. Rather than a utopian future, the tech industry increasingly offers a pessimistic vision of what the world should be. Though this message is painted with a thinly futuristic gloss, it has become more and more conservative.
Take the rise of the pronatalism movement, increasingly popular in Silicon Valley, which argues that people should prioritise having children for economic and social reasons (populating the world with new generations of workers). Elon Musk, who is reported to have fathered 12 children with three different partners, has become the face of the movement. Since 2021, he has advocated for people to have more kids, describing falling birth rates as “one of the biggest risks to civilisation”. On 29 October, the New York Times reported that Musk had purchased a “secret compound” for all of his children to live in, as well as their mothers (though only one of the women appears to have taken him up on the offer so far). The report claimed that those close to Musk said he envisioned all of his younger children being a part of each other’s lives, and that this would make it easier for him to schedule time with them.
Musk may be its most famous advocate, but pronatalism has grown in popularity in the last few years. Panic around declining birth rates has proved ripe territory for the idea that healthy, “conscientious” young people should be having as many children as possible, as soon as possible. Other pronatalists, however, go beyond simply encouraging people to procreate. Some have suggested that intelligent, healthy people should have lots of children, even using gene selection to breed genetically superior babies. (There has been a spike in fertility start-ups in Silicon Valley.) Such opinions have rightly drawn criticism for their parallels to eugenics. Many pronatalists insist this isn’t a religious movement – some of its most famous advocates are proudly atheist – and yet, to many, the movement contains echoes of Christian fundamentalism.
The rise of pronatalism is part of a wider shift in Silicon Valley towards a more right-wing flavour of progressivism, such as the tech world’s obsession with self-optimisation and biohacking. Such outlooks encourage punishing health, work and wellness regimes in pursuit of the longest, most fulfilling life possible (having lots of children is seen as part of ensuring this longevity). But it also aligns with a wider conservative shift in mainstream culture where, online, “tradwives” and “alpha-influencers” gain millions of followers by promoting a life that restricts women to a domestic roles – while, offline, a broad backlash against feminism has led to legislative changes that reduce women’s bodily autonomy, such as the overturning of Roe vs Wade in the US.
This is a glimpse into how pronatalism views women. Men may do their part in breeding, but women are expected to endure the physical, mental and emotional load of pregnancy, childbirth and raising hyper-successful children. Though it’s rarely explicitly stated by pronatalists themselves, it’s hard to envision a generation of workaholic tech bros setting aside their rigid schedules to spend more time parenting and supporting their partners. And so the pronatalist movement makes a quiet case for not a futuristic new society, but a reworking of centuries-old conservative Christian family values.
Elon Musk’s “secret compound” might be heralded by pronatalists as a modern innovation for family planning, but others will see similarities with historical company towns and polygamist communities, which centred life around the man.
Some concerns around falling birth rates are legitimate: our social systems rely on having more working-age people to support ageing demographics. But much of the pronatalists’ argument isn’t seriously concerned with the victims of these systems. Instead, they merely want to create more of themselves, and to protect their own values.
[See also: Elon Musk proves the absolute power of the markets]
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