“The Palo Alto syndrome” or the other side of Silicon Valley

Journalist for 12 years, Loïc Hecht has just published a first novel which attacks the hold of digital technology on our lives. And to do this, what better setting than the Bay of San Francisco? ” I could have developed this subject everywhere else, but in SF, it is embodied physically. The economic backlash and gentrification linked to the presence of the largest high-tech companies have serious consequences for the population »Explains the author. And add: “It is a place where capitalism is unleashed to its maximum and creates inequalities power 1000 … “

Loïc Hecht’s idea: to tell the impact of the tech industry through the cross-stories of characters evolving in different strata of local society. How? ‘Or’ What ? Thanks to a fiction inspired by real events. Marc, a French entrepreneur arrives in Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley (where the headquarters of companies like Facebook, Google or Apple are located). He developed his start-up there, with dreams of a better world in his head. After having validated all the stages of the classic course, from the incubator to the fundraising, he is dismissed. Disgusted, he then seeks revenge on the system and becomes radicalized.

Around him gravitate a student expelled from the University of Berkeley, influencer and host of a naughty show, as well as a journalist who follows the horrors of the news in Silicon Valley. Three disillusioned heroes who allow you to roam the entire ecosystem of the Bay, between the offices of Soma, the district of Mission, Palo Alto or Oakland.

To write this novel Loïc Hecht, 36, carried out an in-depth field survey. He immersed himself for several weeks there. ” I came twice a month, four years apart. For understand the geography of the region, meet local people and see the evolution. For start-uppers and people of the tech, that was easy. It was more complicated to discuss with the activists who had taken intimidating actions against the big boxes in the area»He specifies.

The journalist refers here to the small group “The Counterforce”, publicized in 2014 for having stopped buses chartered by the giants of Silicon Valley or demonstrated in front of the houses of known employees. Their motivation? Break capitalism and the digital prison in which the digital locks us. ” After making several contacts, I got an appointment with them ” he says. “I spoke to them honestly about my project and confidence built up. Those who took part in the actions are subject to the full force of gentrification and I was able to draw inspiration from it for “Virus”, the small group of my novel. “

Because behind the fiction and the theme of ambivalent relations to technology, Loïc Hecht develops a broader reflection on the society in which we live today, in particular on the widening gap of inequalities. ” Even well paid people today find it difficult to live in SF. There are Tesla everywhere but the misery in front … And the problem shifts around.“ The author therefore explores with this first work the margins of our world and the sometimes mocking tone reveals a tension ready to explode.