Google's Jigsaw project has new ideas, but an old imperial mindset

Human development is too important, too complex, and too culturally diverse to be left to profit-driven companies acting in their own interests

Google's new holding company, Alphabet, has announced the latest piece in its corporate restructuring plans: Jigsaw. It's the jovial rebrand of Google Ideas, the web giant's controversial diplomatic arm, founded in 2010 and headed by ex-US State Department policy wonk Jared Cohen. Jigsaw's stated mission is to use technology to tackle geopolitics.

Just another move in the exuberant tech industry, you might say; in a sector that's reported as if it is the fashion business, not the oil trade. But what Google is doing (and it is Google, despite the niceties of Alphabet's organigram) has far-reaching social, economic and political implications.