Balaji's book "The Network State" doesn't refute Charlie's arguments directly but it does a great job of constructing an optimistic vision for the future. The techno-optimists definitionally don't have a doom-and-gloom view of the future, and I find their perspective useful for rounding out my own.

Nobody has all the answers. Humanity is profoundly and hilariously bad at predicting the future, and every generation has both doomsayers and prophets. Rather than getting caught in the emotional swings of siding with one or the other, I personally have focused on becoming as informed as possible so that I can make my own decisions.