problem”. Later on, you will learn that this terrible scenario is not just theoretical,
but a real possibility and serious threat.
I have, therefore, started to work on concepts that could make the world more
sustainable in a democratic way: “digital democracy,” “City Olympics,” “democratic capitalism,” and a “socio-ecological finance system” (“FIN4”) to boost a
circular economy
27
—to mention just a few of the ideas featured in Chaps. 7–13. In
other words, there are surely alternatives to a dystopian future, but we would have
to bring them on the way.
It turns out, however, that this is more difficult than expected, because many
stakeholders seem to have different plans in mind, such as China, for example, or
the big tech companies of “surveillance capitalism”. These often appear to be more
interested in maximizing power or profit than in “saving the world”. And even those
who claim that they want to save the world (such as CERN,
28 the United Nations,
29
and the World Economic Forum
30 ) seem to pursue a centralized approach based on
mass surveillance, with little transparency and no democratic participation.
In the end, one of the people who probably know more about this made a
worrying statement in front of the United Nations’ General Assembly 2019:
“Can we still have confidence in politics, in business, in international
organizations? These are questions to which we must find answers at our
General Assembly”.
31
In fact, the past years have been a tough time characterized by a global struggle
for the path into the future. The following events give just a glimpse of what has
happened in these years.
32
27
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_economy.
28
CERN: The gulf between machine learning and AI, The Inquirer (July 29, 2015) https://web.
archive.org/web/20150731231358/https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/feature/2419669/cern-thegulf-between-machine-learning-and-artificial-intelligence.
29
UN and CERN celebrate science for peace and development and CERN’s 60th anniversary
(October 20, 2014) https://home.cern/news/press-release/cern/un-and-cern-celebrate-sciencepeace-and-development-and-cerns-60th.
30
Shaping the Future of Cybersecurity and Digital Trust, https://www.weforum.org/platforms/
shaping-the-future-of-cybersecurity-and-digital-trust; accordingly, the Global Centre for
Cybersecurity (https://www.weforum.org/videos/global-centre-for-cybersecurity) brings together
actors from America, Russia, China, Israel, Saudi Arabia and many other countries, Europol,
Interpol, and companies from the banking, insurance, oil and Internet sectors, in particular Cisco
and Huawei, Amazon, IBM, Mastercard, Microsoft, Palantir and PayPal.
31
Official Speech of Federal President Ueli Maurer in front of the UN General Assembly, New
York (September 24, 2019) https://www.newsd.admin.ch/newsd/message/attachments/58526.pdf.
32
A more detailed timeline seems to be given by this Connectivist blog: https://theconnectivist.
wordpress.com/2019/08/06/log-of-the-rightwing-power-grab-of-society/, https://web.archive.org/
web/*/https://theconnectivist.wordpress.com/2019/08/06/log-of-the-rightwing-power-grab-ofsociety/.
xii
Prologue
but a real possibility and serious threat.
I have, therefore, started to work on concepts that could make the world more
sustainable in a democratic way: “digital democracy,” “City Olympics,” “democratic capitalism,” and a “socio-ecological finance system” (“FIN4”) to boost a
circular economy
27
—to mention just a few of the ideas featured in Chaps. 7–13. In
other words, there are surely alternatives to a dystopian future, but we would have
to bring them on the way.
It turns out, however, that this is more difficult than expected, because many
stakeholders seem to have different plans in mind, such as China, for example, or
the big tech companies of “surveillance capitalism”. These often appear to be more
interested in maximizing power or profit than in “saving the world”. And even those
who claim that they want to save the world (such as CERN,
28 the United Nations,
29
and the World Economic Forum
30 ) seem to pursue a centralized approach based on
mass surveillance, with little transparency and no democratic participation.
In the end, one of the people who probably know more about this made a
worrying statement in front of the United Nations’ General Assembly 2019:
“Can we still have confidence in politics, in business, in international
organizations? These are questions to which we must find answers at our
General Assembly”.
31
In fact, the past years have been a tough time characterized by a global struggle
for the path into the future. The following events give just a glimpse of what has
happened in these years.
32
27
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_economy.
28
CERN: The gulf between machine learning and AI, The Inquirer (July 29, 2015) https://web.
archive.org/web/20150731231358/https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/feature/2419669/cern-thegulf-between-machine-learning-and-artificial-intelligence.
29
UN and CERN celebrate science for peace and development and CERN’s 60th anniversary
(October 20, 2014) https://home.cern/news/press-release/cern/un-and-cern-celebrate-sciencepeace-and-development-and-cerns-60th.
30
Shaping the Future of Cybersecurity and Digital Trust, https://www.weforum.org/platforms/
shaping-the-future-of-cybersecurity-and-digital-trust; accordingly, the Global Centre for
Cybersecurity (https://www.weforum.org/videos/global-centre-for-cybersecurity) brings together
actors from America, Russia, China, Israel, Saudi Arabia and many other countries, Europol,
Interpol, and companies from the banking, insurance, oil and Internet sectors, in particular Cisco
and Huawei, Amazon, IBM, Mastercard, Microsoft, Palantir and PayPal.
31
Official Speech of Federal President Ueli Maurer in front of the UN General Assembly, New
York (September 24, 2019) https://www.newsd.admin.ch/newsd/message/attachments/58526.pdf.
32
A more detailed timeline seems to be given by this Connectivist blog: https://theconnectivist.
wordpress.com/2019/08/06/log-of-the-rightwing-power-grab-of-society/, https://web.archive.org/
web/*/https://theconnectivist.wordpress.com/2019/08/06/log-of-the-rightwing-power-grab-ofsociety/.
xii
Prologue