Themes of 2016: is democracy itself threatened by tech disruption? | Carole Cadwalladr
In 2009, in what future generations may see as the high-water mark of the ideology known as "techno-utopianism", which may at some point be rebranded as "techno-delusionism", Gordon Brown stepped on to the TED stage. The Silicon Valley thinkfest had come to Britain and he was there to talk about politics, technology and what he called "the creation of a truly global society".
He had a powerful message to deliver. "The power of our moral sense, allied to the power of communications," he said, along with "our ability to organise internationally", would enable us "to fundamentally change the world". This was a politician telling a tech crowd what it wanted to hear and what he wanted to believe. What we all wanted to believe. Brown's thesis was this: people are essentially good. We have feeling for our fellow man and technology would be the enabler of more goodness. It would harness the very best of us .
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