IT DOESN’T BODE WELL for the world that the lineage of the tech companies stretches back to the communes. That experiment ended in shambles—the communities dissolved into cults of personality, small villages riven by rivalries. All the gorgeous visions of democracy and collectivism culminated in authoritarianism and crushing disappointment. In 1971, Stewart Brand pulled the plug on the Whole Earth Catalog after four years of publication.
