Jamie Susskind

Harvard Book Store welcomes author, speaker, and practicing barrister JAMIE SUSSKIND for a discussion of his new book, Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech.

About Future Politics

Future Politics confronts one of the most important questions of our time: how will digital technology transform politics and society? The great political debate of the last century was about how much of our collective life should be determined by the state and what should be left to the market and civil society. In the future, the question will be how far our lives should be directed and controlled by powerful digital systems—and on what terms?

Jamie Susskind argues that rapid and relentless innovation in a range of technologies—from artificial intelligence to virtual reality—will transform the way we live together. Calling for a fundamental change in the way we think about politics, he describes a world in which certain technologies and platforms, and those who control them, come to hold great power over us. Some will gather data about our lives, causing us to avoid conduct perceived as shameful, sinful, or wrong. Others will filter our perception of the world, choosing what we know, shaping what we think, affecting how we feel, and guiding how we act. Still, others will force us to behave in certain ways, like self-driving cars that refuse to drive over the speed limit.

Those who control these technologies—usually big tech firms and the state—will increasingly control us. They will set the limits of our liberty, decreeing what we may do and what is forbidden. Their algorithms will resolve vital questions of social justice, allocating social goods and sorting us into hierarchies of status and esteem. They will decide the future of democracy, causing it to flourish or decay.

A groundbreaking work of political analysis, Future Politics challenges readers to rethink what it means to be free or equal, what it means to have power or property, what it means for a political system to be just or democratic and proposes ways in which we can—and must—regain.

Praise

"From Arendt to artificial intelligence, from Machiavelli to machine learning, Susskind seamlessly weaves modern technology with classic theory to present a tour de force introduction to the future—explaining with erudition and humor the powerful digital systems that will govern our lives." —Beth Simone Noveck, Professor in Technology, Culture, and Society, New York University Tandon School of Engineering

"The power of computation, dispersed in space, integrated in the cloud, and enabled to operate on ever bigger data. What are the implications for our freedom, for our democratic control of our lives, and for establishing or maintaining justice? Jamie Susskind offers a pathbreaking exploration of the challenge that these issues pose for our political thinking and practice. It's a must-read." —Philip Pettit, L.S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University and Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy, Australian National University

"Engineers and entrepreneurs are rebuilding the world. Politicians have to govern it. The risk is that they fail to understand each other—with profound implications for the rest of us. Future Politics is the antidote: a lucid and essential guide to how technology is changing politics. Read it—and I hope our leaders do too." —Matt Clifford MBE, Co-Founder & CEO, Entrepreneur First