Technology and Revolution Reading List

Broad Issues around Technology and Society

• ​Brace yourself: the most disruptive phase of globalization is just beginning. Baldwin argues that globalization takes shape in three distinct stages: the ability to move goods, then ideas, and finally people. Moving people really means remote controlled machines - people don't move, they simply operate remote robots.
• ​Robots taking Jobs.
• ​The Privacy Paradox (pod cast)
• ​The Fourth Industrial Revolution
• ​Pope Francis TED talk on the future (video)

Tech-focused articles - what is possible

• ​Locking the Web Open: A call for a distributed web. "Over the last 25 years, millions of people have poured creativity and knowledge into the World Wide Web. New features have been added and dramatic flaws have emerged based on the original simple design. I would like to suggest we could now build a new Web on top of the existing Web that secures what we want most out of an expressive communication tool without giving up its inclusiveness. I believe we can do something quite counter-intuitive: We can lock the Web open."

Oppression-base analyses

• ​Open Internet Closed to Women. "The Web is regularly hailed for its 'openness' and that's where the confusion begins, since 'open' in no way means 'equal.' While the Internet may create space for many voices, it also reflects and often amplifies real-world inequities in striking ways."
• ​Contemporary Assumptions on Race and Technology. Michelle Wright examines the relationship between black people and technology
• ​Interview with Jonathan Taplin on the Reactionary Vision and Destructive Role of Internet Giants. Google, Facebook and Amazon sometimes spout politically progressive statements but their policies are driven by an Ayn Rand liberterianism that contributes to deepening inequality and social destruction. This interview with an author of a book about just that explains why.