PAULINA BORSOOK

THE TECHNOLIBERTARIANISM CRITIC

EDUCATION

Paulina’s education background consists of a BA in Psycholinguistics from UC Berkeley, an MFA that she began at University of Arizona and completed at Columbia University, and a radio show on KCSB that she ran at UC Santa Barbara.

THE WORK

She went on to work at Wired magazine as a contributing writer and masthead in the 90s, Mother Jones, suck.com — where she wrote under the name ‘Justine’, and Stanford University where she worked as an artist in Residence in 2013.

She is best known for her book Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terrible Libertarian Culture of High Tech, first published in 2000 before being re-released in 2026 by Tin House. It was originally based on a 1996 Mother Jones essay tracing the origins of technolibertarianism.

The book acted as a direct and unwavering criticism of Silicon Valley and its blatant abhorrence for checks and balances during a time of rapid expansion.

"Silicon Valley hated governments, rules and regulations. It believed if you were rich, you were smart. It thought people could be, and indeed should be, programmed just like a computer."

WHY SHE’S A GODMOTHER

Paulina dared to criticise Silicon Valley at a time when few were willing to do so, and she was alienated for it.

She coined the term technolibertarianism. She was right, publicly, thirty years early. Her opportunities dried up as a result. The book that proved prescient has taken 26 years to be rereleased.

She is currently disabled and supported by a GoFundMe set up by friends. This is the visibility problem made biographical.

She has remained steadfast in championing empathy in technology, and reminding us to stay vigilant and vocal during this ever-expanding tech boom.

“If empathy has now become a distasteful personal failing; if surveillance capitalism has become the default shrugged-off business practice; if the environmental impacts of AI are waved away: then we are alas living in the tech-driven culture I saw headed our way 30 years ago. It's terrible that I was right.”