This week in the magazine, George Packer asks tech-industry insiders why the vast profits of the tech world have paralleled a growing disparity between rich and poor, and how they think about their social and political roles. Ken Auletta often writes about the tech industry for the magazine's Annals of Communication column. Here, Packer and Auletta talk with the editor of newyorker.com, Nicholas Thompson, about the culture and politics of Silicon Valley. Also, Deborah Treisman channels Italo Calvino.