"We started out collecting this information by accident, as part of our project to automate everything, but soon realized that it had economic value."

Is he saying the end results of the project to [insert stated project purpose here], e.g., "to automate everything", "to organize the world's information", etc., did not have enough economic value to sustain the project... and hence founders were "forced" to collect data as a means to generate value?

Here's another version: pre-Google search engines realized they could sell ad space, i.e., paid placements, e.g., to auto manufacturers.

Once the advertising industry became involved, then collecting data about the network's users, if one could do it, was a no-brainer.

"... really it's just the regular old world from before, with a bunch of microphones and keyboards and flat screens sticking out of it."

Not sure that young people who worship Silicon Valley want to believe this, and why should they?

The author always makes a good case for the potential long term consequences of the so-called "changes to the world" that many programmers are adamantly pursuing.

Maybe these programmers are not changing the world. Maybe they're just doing what others already did in the past, on a smaller scale, without the benefit of cheap electronics.