The People vs. Tech - How the internet is killing democracy (and how we save it)   Jamie Bartlett   Penguin/Ebury Press  2018



The writer of this book, which I read late in September 2019, is Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media a U.K. think-tank, Demos.  He looks at the  dangers which he sees that ever advancing and diverse but interrelated technology pose for democratic systems.

Such technology includes advances in robotics, algorithms, and driverless technology which is already leading to job losses. As with past technological advances, there are opportunities for new jobs, but the author sees a clear danger of a ‘barbell-shaped economy’, as described by MIT economist, David Autor. This means a small number of very well-paid jobs based on tech skills at the top and a high number of insecure and low-paid jobs at the other end. For Bartlett, the key issue is that this results in the hollowing out of the middle class, who traditionally have the greatest vested interest in a democratic system.

Connected with that is people having less time for the civic activity and groups which underpin democracy, both because of the pressures of insecure employment and more time spent on the Internet. The latter also leads to an increasing ‘echo chamber’ of like-minded people engaging on the Internet and less and less exposed to a wider range of opinions. Such an ‘echo chamber’ can transform “a group of like-minded people into a motivated, mobilized tribe” with “a sense of shared struggle and common grievance.” As he sees it, “the internet is the largest and most abundantly stocked pantry of grievance in the history of mankind.” (p.47)

Advances such as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can reduce both government control and access to finance for the wider community. There is also the power of tech giants, many of which are effectively monopolies. They can exert great power. He gives the example of Uber, the ride-sharing app. company, encouraging its users to join a petition in huge numbers to challenge Transport for London’s opposition to renewing its licence in London.

His epilogue aims to be positive with “20 Ideas to Save Democracy” ranging from avoiding “outsourcing the responsibility to think for yourself”, by relying on web-based sources such as Google Maps, to countering technology’s effects on elections, particularly through datamining. As he indicates after those ideas, democracy needs a kind of protection from technological advance, “Taken together, these suggestions all amount to a defense of politics over technology. Rapid technological change can empower, liberate and enrich us, but only if it is subject to powerful democratic systems which have the authority and power to act - but are also accountable to people and the public interest.” (p.227)

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