César Rendueles: “We are experiencing the dark side

of a friendly Silicon Valley”

Redes Vacías (Empty Networks) is the latest book by this sociologist, who has observed the rapid shift we have undergone from an enthusiastic view of technology to the current climate of cyber-pessimism.
 

Irene G. Rubio - Palo Elorduy

Thirteen years ago, César Rendueles (Girona, 1975) enjoyed a fleeting publishing'success. Sociofobia  (Capitán Swing, 2013) outlined the extent of the defeat of emancipatory movements and the inability to find solutions to that defeat. The pages of Sociofobia already contained critiques of cyber-utopianism, the belief, in vogue at the time, that technology-mediated politics was a panacea; that, through technical solutions, it was possible to ‘hack’ the system, as they said back then, and escape from that endless defeat. Several years later, Redes vacías. Tecnología catastrófica y el fin de la democracia (Empty Networks. Catastrophic Technology and the End of Democracy - Anagrama, 2026), the latest book by this CSIC researcher, revisits the questions about technology present in Sociofobia. The starting point,however, bears witness to the sharp turn that much ofsociety has taken from being dazzled by the possibilities of technology and social media to the current cyber-catastrophism. Despite their different approaches, both works delve deeper into Rendueles’s work in identifying what makes us feel powerless, that we cannot change anything around us, and counteract it.


For a full review of this essay, click here or on the picture to download the pdf file.