The IT revolution reassessed part three: Framing solutions

Abstract

The first section picks up the central theme of the series by focusing on ill-considered or compulsive innovation. It questions fatalistic attitudes and argues that, far from being inevitable, concerns such as artificial intelligence (AI) or Chinese surveillance practices need to be brought more fully into the open and subjected to more sustained critical enquiry. The rest of the paper takes up the theme of recovery and renewal. Some critical ‘blind spots’ are briefly outlined (a distinct lack of interest in global challenges; a pervasive tendency to under-value ‘the social’) and reframed in more positive terms. The notion of ‘constitutive human interests’ is raised. It’s here that the implications of the project become ever more obvious since many of the concerns raised can be viewed as positive opportunities for productive innovation and adaptive change. A variety of innovations for better managing IT-related innovations and re-purposing the Internet are subsequently discussed. They include working with three scales of innovation, taming algorithms and supporting human agency. The positive innovation theme continues in the following section where wider questions about social democracy, new infrastructure and regulation are discussed. The question of ‘re-humanising’ the IT revolution then brings in notions of the public good, moral universals and the ambiguity of rapid and unconstrained technical innovation. The overall conclusions of the paper, and indeed, of the whole project, are framed by a growing imperative to ‘disrupt the disruptors’ by investing in socially democratic actions and processes across the board. Finally, a new look at values and moral development arguably has significant implications for the issues discussed throughout.