Commercial platforms cannot prioritise the ideals of a liberal public sphere, much less the principle of popular sovereignty, over the profit motive. Introduction The information technology sector broadly defined is now at the leading edge of the capitalist system. Material production and distribution, enterprise and professional management, finance, insurance and real estate are all increasingly […]
Was the Rise of Neoliberalism the Root Cause of Extreme Inequality?
Financial meltdown, environmental disaster and even the rise of Donald Trump – neoliberalism has played its part in them all. Neoliberalism’s triumph also reflects the failure of the left. When laissez-faire economics led to catastrophe in 1929, Keynes devised a comprehensive economic theory to replace it. When Keynesian demand management hit the buffers in the […]
STEWART BRAND AND THE TOOLS THAT WILL MAKE THE WHOLE EARTH BETTER
At 79, Stewart Brand, the man who was wired before WIRED, sizzles and sparks when he talks about the future. The bad news is cyberwar. It’s looking extremely powerful. It doesn’t have any rules yet. And it will only get rules through some pretty wretched excesses and disasters. And it’s going to take the world pretty much […]
Evolving the New Economy: Tim O’Reilly and David Sloan Wilson
Evolutionary theory meets artificial intelligence and the management of algorithms. David Sloan Wilson interview with Tim O’Reilly I use the phrase “Evolving the Future” a lot nowadays. It’s the title of a major scientific review article (“Evolving the Future: Toward a Science of Intentional Change”) and part of the subtitle of my next book (“This View of […]
The simple but ingenious system Taiwan uses to crowdsource its laws
Taiwan is a promising experiment in participatory governance. But politics is blocking it from getting greater traction. It was late in 2015, and things were at an impasse. Some four years earlier, Taiwan’s finance ministry had decided to legalize online sales of alcohol. To help it shape the new rules, the ministry had kicked off […]