14.3 Design for Values
307
Fig. 14.5 Values that matter for democracies, in particular
this.
93 Later, in fact, Google experimented in Toronto, for example, but people did
not like it much.
94 Peter Thiel (*1967), on the other hand, claimed there was a
deadly race between politics and technology, and one had to make the world save for
capitalism.
95 In other words, it seems that, among many leading tech entrepreneurs,
there has been little love and respect for democracy (not to talk about their interference
with democratic elections by trying to manipulate voters).
However, democratic institutions have not occurred by accident. They have
been lessons from wars, revolutions and other trouble in human history. Can we
really afford to ignore them? At least, we should have a broad public debate about
this beforehand. Personally, I consider the following democratic values to be relevant: human dignity and human rights, (informational) self-determination, freedom
(combined with accountability), pluralism, protection of minorities, division of
power, checks and balances, participation, transparency, fairness, justice, legitimacy,
anonymous and equal votes, and privacy (in the sense of protection from unfair
exposure and the right to be left alone) (see Fig. 14.5). I am not sure it would benefit
93 Google CEO Larry Page Wants a Totally Separate World Where Tech Companies Can Conduct
Experiments on People, Business Insider (May 16, 2013) https://www.businessinsider.com/googleceo-larry-page-wants-a-place-for-experiments-2013-5.
94 ‚Surveillance capitalism‘: critic urges Toronto to abandon smart city project, The Guardian (June 6,
2019) https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/06/toronto-smart-city-google-project-privacyconcerns.
95 Peter Thiel is trying to save the world: The apocalyptic theory behind his actions, Business Insider
(December 8, 2016) https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-is-trying-to-save-the-world-201
6-12.
307
Fig. 14.5 Values that matter for democracies, in particular
this.
93 Later, in fact, Google experimented in Toronto, for example, but people did
not like it much.
94 Peter Thiel (*1967), on the other hand, claimed there was a
deadly race between politics and technology, and one had to make the world save for
capitalism.
95 In other words, it seems that, among many leading tech entrepreneurs,
there has been little love and respect for democracy (not to talk about their interference
with democratic elections by trying to manipulate voters).
However, democratic institutions have not occurred by accident. They have
been lessons from wars, revolutions and other trouble in human history. Can we
really afford to ignore them? At least, we should have a broad public debate about
this beforehand. Personally, I consider the following democratic values to be relevant: human dignity and human rights, (informational) self-determination, freedom
(combined with accountability), pluralism, protection of minorities, division of
power, checks and balances, participation, transparency, fairness, justice, legitimacy,
anonymous and equal votes, and privacy (in the sense of protection from unfair
exposure and the right to be left alone) (see Fig. 14.5). I am not sure it would benefit
93 Google CEO Larry Page Wants a Totally Separate World Where Tech Companies Can Conduct
Experiments on People, Business Insider (May 16, 2013) https://www.businessinsider.com/googleceo-larry-page-wants-a-place-for-experiments-2013-5.
94 ‚Surveillance capitalism‘: critic urges Toronto to abandon smart city project, The Guardian (June 6,
2019) https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/06/toronto-smart-city-google-project-privacyconcerns.
95 Peter Thiel is trying to save the world: The apocalyptic theory behind his actions, Business Insider
(December 8, 2016) https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-is-trying-to-save-the-world-201
6-12.