Lots of mysterious terms are bandied about excitedly in ted Talks, at government think tanks, and at high-tech conferences- globalization, blockchain, genetic engineering, AI, machine learning-and common people, both men and women, may well suspect that none of these terms is about them.
In 2018 the common person feels increasingly irrelevant. He looked at the propaganda posters-which typically depicted coal miners and steelworkers in heroic poses-and saw himself there: “I am in that poster! I am the hero of the future!” In 1938 the common man’s condition in the Soviet Union, Germany, or the United States may have been grim, but he was constantly told that he was the most important thing in the world, and that he was the future (provided, of course, that he was an “ordinary man,” rather than, say, a Jew or a woman). Ordinary people may not understand artificial intelligence and biotechnology in any detail, but they can sense that the future is passing them by. Under such conditions, liberal democracy and free-market economics might become obsolete.Ĭheck out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
Together, infotech and biotech will create unprecedented upheavals in human society, eroding human agency and, possibly, subverting human desires. Information technology is continuing to leap forward biotechnology is beginning to provide a window into our inner lives-our emotions, thoughts, and choices. The technology that favored democracy is changing, and as artificial intelligence develops, it might change further. The causes of this political shift are complex, but they appear to be intertwined with current technological developments. Questions about the ability of liberal democracy to provide for the middle class have grown louder politics have grown more tribal and in more and more countries, leaders are showing a penchant for demagoguery and autocracy. In the second decade of the 21st century, liberalism has begun to lose credibility. Their success in the 20th century depended on unique technological conditions that may prove ephemeral. But these ideals are far more fragile than we believe. The emergence of liberal democracies is associated with ideals of liberty and equality that may seem self-evident and irreversible. Monarchies, oligarchies, and other forms of authoritarian rule have been far more common modes of human governance. For all the success that democracies have had over the past century or more, they are blips in history.
There is nothing inevitable about democracy.
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