Silicon Valley: The Next Decade (Part 3)

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The Money and How It Is Applied

Of course, the models discussed are predicated upon the fact that the patrons and salonniers had money and were willing to spend it on fostering a community of artists and intellectuals without directly benefiting from such an “investment.”

In Silicon Valley, we have plenty of money. There will be more as the next wave of IPOs and acquisitions happen. We are also already a magnet for talented engineers and entrepreneurs because the Valley’s wealthy shower investment on promising startups as angel investors.

However, I am not so sure that the Valley’s wealthy will put in the same effort to go find the next Botticelli and invite him to come live on their estates in Atherton or Woodside, as Lorenzo would. Nor am I sure that a concerted effort will be made to host Enlightenment salons to foster intellectual and artistic discourse of a kind that can push us forward as a society toward something more sophisticated, elegant, and creative.

This effort, if Silicon Valley’s elite can rise to the challenge, will make the crucial difference.

We have the money here. But when it comes to social grace and talent, people are woefully unimaginative.

For Silicon Valley, a social and cultural “growing up” is in order. If it happens, we can expect to see a Renaissance this decade comparable to Florence under the Medicis.

This, coupled with our natural flair for technology and entrepreneurship, will help us to reach unprecedented levels of prosperity because the scale at which we can impact humanity today, right from our computers and mobile phones, is infinite.

Silicon Valley: Vision 2020

In conclusion, let’s take a walk through Silicon Valley in the year 2020.

Look around. The architecture has changed from 10 years ago. Here in Menlo Park, a cluster of contemporary houses designed by Chilean architect Bernardo Urquieta flank Olive Street leading up to Santa Cruz Avenue.

Taka a turn, and downtown Menlo Park is now a juxtaposition of almost 25 world-class art galleries, 15 nightclubs, a theater, beautiful boutiques exhibiting clothes from a new generation of multicultural fashion designers, and some 50 ethnically diverse restaurants. On any night, you can go listen to the top jazz musicians of the day, dance the Argentine tango to live musicians from Buenos Aires, or listen to a poetry reading at an alternative performing arts venue.

In fact, once a week the restaurants play host to a salon, where interesting, multi-faceted discussions and exchanges take place.

It has become surprisingly easy to meet interesting, multidimensional people in Silicon Valley these days. You walk in to any of these salons, performing arts venues, nightclubs, or art galleries, and social media follows you in. Location-sensitive technology lets you know who else is there, and based on personalization algorithms invented right here in the Valley, it will recommend whom you should meet and strike up a conversation with.

Not far from Sand Hill Road, on a cul de sac called Randall Place, stands a jewel of a museum – a private home, really – housing a most exquisite collection of photography by California photographer William Carter. This museum, modeled after the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston and the Frick museum in New York, hosts regular concerts and salons, as well as elegant dances. Here, artists in residence come to work from far and away, and in the Medici tradition, they find patrons among the Valley’s elite through their hosts.

At a piano lounge on Chestnut, the Ella Fitzgerald of this era sings. New Orleans born Ledisi studied opera and piano in Berkeley, and when she sings Willow, weep for me … the willow does, often, weep in response.

What else do you see, as you look around? Do share …

About Sramana Mitra
Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, an educational, business development and incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant. She writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. As an entrepreneur CEO, she ran three companies: DAIS, Intarka, and Uuma. She has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
 
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