Technolibertarianism:
The World as a Video Game
Technolibertarianism is the belief that technologically empowered individuals and entrepreneurs—operating with minimal governmental restraint—are the primary agents of progress. The three clearest present-day representatives are probably Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Elon Musk—but each combines technolibertarianism with other impulses, including nationalism, state power, or technological authoritarianism. Technolibertarianism revolves around six key ideas:
These ideas function as lures for feeling through which people—mostly, though not exclusively, men—seek adventure, achievement, freedom, and personal significance.
From a process-relational perspective, however, there is a problem with this. Technoibertarians channel the legitimate desire for adventure and its expressions in unhealthy directions: toward domination rather than participation, efficiency rather than beauty, competition rather than community, and control rather than receptivity.
Nevertheless, technolibertarianism is deeply seductive because it promises not merely material success, but an identity: the image of oneself as a heroic individual moving faster than others, mastering complexity, overcoming limits, and building the future. In this way it is associated with the dominant logic of video games, as David Waddington argues in The Hidden Curriculum of Video Games.
- Limited Government: Government should interfere as little as possible with markets, technology, and entrepreneurial activity.
- Radical Individualism: Creative individuals, rather than communities or public institutions, are the primary agents of social progress.
- Technological Optimism: Technological innovation can solve problems more effectively than governments, traditions, or democratic deliberation.
- Optimal Efficiency: Everything—work, relationships, attention, and even the self—should be measured, streamlined, and continually optimized.
- Meritocratic Mastery: Exceptional innovators and “tech heroes” deserve wealth, power, and admiration, while those who fall behind are treated as responsible for their own failure.
- Acceleration and Control: Faster is assumed to be better, and the world is approached as a collection of resources to be calculated, managed, and mastered.
These ideas function as lures for feeling through which people—mostly, though not exclusively, men—seek adventure, achievement, freedom, and personal significance.
From a process-relational perspective, however, there is a problem with this. Technoibertarians channel the legitimate desire for adventure and its expressions in unhealthy directions: toward domination rather than participation, efficiency rather than beauty, competition rather than community, and control rather than receptivity.
Nevertheless, technolibertarianism is deeply seductive because it promises not merely material success, but an identity: the image of oneself as a heroic individual moving faster than others, mastering complexity, overcoming limits, and building the future. In this way it is associated with the dominant logic of video games, as David Waddington argues in The Hidden Curriculum of Video Games.
The World as Video Game
Interview with David Waddington on The Hidden Curriculum of Video Games
Despite decades of inflammatory rhetoric, the real risk of video games lies not in their violent imagery but in the ethical and political sensibilities they normalize. Video games reward speed, efficiency, control, and meritocratic mastery, training players to align with a technolibertarian worldview - one that celebrates individual will, technological power, and skepticism toward collective forms of governance. Rather than asking whether games produce violent individuals, we might more productively ask how they contribute to a commitment to radical capitalism and a belief in highly individualistic worldviews. In this unsettling work David Waddington traces the philosophical roots of technolibertarianism, founded on faith in technological progress and personal freedom.
He identifies a darker turn in this thinking, animated by the ideals of Ayn Rand and her archetype of the "tech hero of capitalism." Many games, Waddington argues, invite players to inhabit this archetype, treating mastery, control, and relentless striving as moral virtues. While educational research often praises games for motivating students and fostering problem-solving, Waddington asks a deeper question: What kinds of people do games help us become? Drawing on Martin Heidegger and other thinkers, he explores whether gameplay expands human possibility or narrows it by habituating players to efficient yet restrictive systems. The Hidden Curriculum of Video Games (McGill-Queen's UP, 2026) critiques mainstream game design and educational technology, offering hopeful alternatives and examining reflective games that resist dominant gameplay logics. Written with clarity, passion, and philosophical depth, this thought-provoking work opens new horizons on technology, education, and the moral imagination of play.
Rudolf Thomas Inderst (*1978) enjoys video games since 1985. He received a master’s degree in political science, American cultural studies as well as contemporary and recent history from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich and holds two PhDs in game studies (LMU & University of Passau). Currently, he's teaching as a professor for game design and game studies at the HNU University of Applied Sciences Neu-Ulm, Germany, holds the position as lead editor at the online journal TITEL kulturmagazin for the game section, and is editor of the weekly game research newsletter Game Studies Watchlist.
He identifies a darker turn in this thinking, animated by the ideals of Ayn Rand and her archetype of the "tech hero of capitalism." Many games, Waddington argues, invite players to inhabit this archetype, treating mastery, control, and relentless striving as moral virtues. While educational research often praises games for motivating students and fostering problem-solving, Waddington asks a deeper question: What kinds of people do games help us become? Drawing on Martin Heidegger and other thinkers, he explores whether gameplay expands human possibility or narrows it by habituating players to efficient yet restrictive systems. The Hidden Curriculum of Video Games (McGill-Queen's UP, 2026) critiques mainstream game design and educational technology, offering hopeful alternatives and examining reflective games that resist dominant gameplay logics. Written with clarity, passion, and philosophical depth, this thought-provoking work opens new horizons on technology, education, and the moral imagination of play.
Rudolf Thomas Inderst (*1978) enjoys video games since 1985. He received a master’s degree in political science, American cultural studies as well as contemporary and recent history from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich and holds two PhDs in game studies (LMU & University of Passau). Currently, he's teaching as a professor for game design and game studies at the HNU University of Applied Sciences Neu-Ulm, Germany, holds the position as lead editor at the online journal TITEL kulturmagazin for the game section, and is editor of the weekly game research newsletter Game Studies Watchlist.
Endorsements of Waddington's Book
"A fierce philosophical account of what we learn from playing video games and how the gaming experience reinforces a technolibertarian ideology. Waddington considers the impact of video games on our thinking and our culture, something that is crucial as democratic institutions, including schools, are under attack by the very same technological forces that are selling us the software systems."
Audrey Watters, author of Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning
"A smart and bracing challenge to uncritical boosters of video games. Waddington writes with a deep knowledge and experience of games of all kinds, with his eyes open to the ways in which games' acceleration experience can crowd out all other forms of life. For anyone seeking a thoughtful and historically informed examination of the effects of video games, this book is a fantastic place to start."
Adrian Hon, author of You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All
Audrey Watters, author of Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning
"A smart and bracing challenge to uncritical boosters of video games. Waddington writes with a deep knowledge and experience of games of all kinds, with his eyes open to the ways in which games' acceleration experience can crowd out all other forms of life. For anyone seeking a thoughtful and historically informed examination of the effects of video games, this book is a fantastic place to start."
Adrian Hon, author of You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All