Silicon Valley: America's 'cauldron of ingenuity' that became the epicenter of Big Tech
Fox Nation explores 'The Unauthorized History of Silicon Valley' in a new special hosted by 'Special Report' anchor Bret Baier.
The cradle of technological innovation in America, Silicon Valley has remained integral to breaking down barriers through entrepreneurial risk and achievement by visionaries across several decades – their innovation from the past solidified in the minds of some Gen Xers with the groundbreaking Apple Macintosh Super Bowl commercial in 1984 to, 40 years later, moving beyond the television – or desktop computer – screen and into our everyday lives through smartphones, social media and more.
But, with such progress comes a power that breeds corruption.
"The story of Silicon Valley is also a tale of how government and the most vibrant parts of our private economy intersect," said Fox News anchor Bret Baier.
"Silicon Valley is not just a place, it is a cauldron of ingenuity, a source of great invention, and a seat of vast and growing power. It is an empire built on sand."
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The "Special Report" anchor will assume the role of host of a five-part documentary, the latest in Fox Nation’s "Unauthorized History" series, dedicated to exploring the story behind the land that houses America’s 21st century technology empires and the fortunes amassed by the tech titans behind them.
"The Unauthorized History of Silicon Valley," a five-part documentary on the history of America's technological haven on Fox Nation. (Fox Nation)
"They were the ones who were building things that everyone in the world used, so they saw themselves as the creators, and everybody else was just a what we would call a non-player character, acting out in the background what was already designed for them to do by a lot of those people who are in Silicon Valley," Kara Frederick, Director of the Tech Policy Center at the Heritage Foundation, said during the series.
Today, those creators and non-player characters are locked into conversations that ask "Who gets a voice?" and "Where does the First Amendment fit into all of this?"
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With shadow-banning and news suppression an integral component of new media usage, the answer remains unclear.
Apple is one of several Big Tech companies headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. (Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Decades ago, this massive technological shakeup began with the computer revolution that arrived in Northern California during the Cold War, driven by NASA and the Pentagon.
It eventually worked its way into homes across the nation as powerful microchips led to personal computers and video games.
Today, as the new Fox Nation special explores, the reality is different — with access to such innovation in our hands, at our fingertips, in our pockets or purses, and even changing the way we find answers to questions, communicate or consume our news.
At the same time, such influence becomes political.
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"[With] the methodologies [they] employ censoring and destroying people's lives and interfering in politics, especially with the Hunter Biden laptop, people started to say that these Silicon Valley social media concerns are affecting elections," Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson said.
Smartphones, a byproduct of technological innovation, have become integral to our everyday way of life. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Silicon Valley now houses a swath of Big Tech companies that dominate the industry – Apple, Hewlett Packard, Google, Intel and Meta, among others. But its influence spread far beyond California and America as a whole, going overseas and igniting concerns that the technology could someday be commandeered by America's adversaries.
"My biggest concern is that the peace that we've had in the Taiwan Straits over the past half century is looking more and more precarious, just as the chip industry has become increasingly centralized in Taiwan," said author Chris Miller, another guest expert in the Fox Nation special.
"We've levered the entire global economy to one specific geography, which also happens to be the world's most dangerous geopolitical hotspot," the "Chip War" author continued.
To learn more about the history of Silicon Valley and hear perspectives from key analysts, experts and historians, subscribe to Fox Nation and begin streaming "The Unauthorized History of Silicon Valley" today.
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Fox Nation subscribers can also stream three new specials on Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
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