What can and should democracy do in face of the threat posed by technology. Economic growth and social equity can and should work hand in hand. Why concerns about NFTs could be more profound than meets the eye. Why choosing what we want to know (and not know) makes sense and why it also makes sense not to be instantly available.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Manuel Muniz, Technology and the Global Struggle for Democracy
(Project Syndicate, 11 January 2022)
Tech at large poses three major risks for democracy: (1) Social networks favour disinformation and balkanize the public discourse by segmenting users into echo chambers; (2) the convergence of AI and big data threatens privacy through state surveillance and “surveillance capitalism”; (3) data and public control supplant individual agency and freedom as the cornerstones of the political system (highlighting the risk of a “tech Leviathan”). Yet, democracies are not helpless in the face of technological change, and it is in their power to decide which technologies they do and do not want. This column highlights a new initiative on how to do this (metered paywall – reads in 6-7 min).
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Philippe Aghion, Reda Cherif, Fuad Hasanov, Fair and inclusive markets: Why fostering dynamism matters
(VOXeu, 20 January 2022)
At a time when rising inequality and firms’ market power endanger inclusive growth and shared prosperity, this column makes the fundamental point that economic growth and social equity are not mutually exclusive. Economic dynamism is crucial for achieving sustained growth and more equal market outcomes, with data showing that countries with faster growth over the last four decades ended up with lower market inequality in the 2010s. Future growth depends on policies that (1) support sophisticated export industries, (2) foster innovation and creative destruction, and (3) promote competition (free access – reads in 7-8 min).
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Caleb Scharf, The Worrisome Rise of NFTs
(Nautilus, 12 January 2022)
A uniquely interesting perspective on NFTs: that of an astrobiologist. Scharf argues that NFTs (non-fungible tokens) do not bode well for the future of our species. In his opinion, “it’s possible to see a purpose for cryptocurrencies, but NFTs are (for now) almost comically bereft of anything most of us would associate with social or cultural value.” Read on to understand the intricacies of the argument which boils down to this observation: “The extraordinary fact is that the universe is an engine that turns the fungible into the non-fungible.”
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Shayla Love, What We Don’t Want to Know
(Vice, 12 January 2022)
This article focuses on “deliberate ignorance” – a notion coined by the psychologist Ralph Hertwig who just co-authored the book Deliberate Ignorance: Choosing Not to Know. The common view is that ignorance is a vice and knowledge is a virtue, but deciding not to know (from when we’ll die to what we want for Christmas) is not rare because it comes with many benefits: it helps regulate emotions by warding off negative ones and prolonging positive ones. It’s also a way to maintain our beliefs about ourselves and others. In addition, it can be a mechanism for fairness or bias removal, or a way to avoid feeling overwhelmed when bombarded with information (metered paywall – reads in 7-8 min).
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Joe Pinsker, What If We Just Stopped Being So Available?
(The Atlantic, 14 January 2022)
Our ‘always-on’ culture has created a “spiral of expectations”: we must respond quasi-instantaneously to every call, e-mail, message on social media, and any other solicitation. This article argues that today’s norms of responsiveness are ridiculous and that we shouldn’t apologize for failing to meet them. It is based on a range of interviews with academics who provide their opinion on how to deal with this problem (metered paywall – reads in about 10 min).
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