How to Fix the Future

Starred review from December 15, 2017
A leading critic of the internet finds encouraging signs of reform.Silicon Valley veteran and GQ columnist Keen (The Internet Is Not the Answer, 2015, etc.) argues that "we humans must seize back control of our own fate" amid the "bewilderingly fast change" of the digital age. In this engaging, provocative book, he outlines five strategies--regulation, competitive innovation, consumer choice, civic responsibility, and education--that, working in collaboration, can help ensure an open, decentralized digital future. Drawing on nearly 100 interviews, the author describes the work of individuals around the world to counter the negative effects of "vast digital monopolies and the pervasive culture of online surveillance." All illustrate his reform strategies in action. Keen's bright overview includes conversations with innovators in Estonia and Singapore--international hubs of digital reform--who are working to re-establish trust and agency in cyberspace life; with Mitch and Freada Kapor, leaders of Oakland's "ethical technology movement," aimed at countering Silicon Valley's "mostly corrosive indifference to the impact of its disruption on the world around it"; and with Hollywood producer Jonathan Taplin, who encourages musicians and filmmakers to resist new models and practices that deny them income. Cambridge philosopher Huw Price argues venture capitalists must "use moral criterion to determine their investments in the AI space." While railing against "addictive apps like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram" and Silicon Valley leaders "mostly lacking in empathy or responsibility" and devoid of "civic engagement" in their philanthropy, Keen celebrates such startups as an online networking platform that connects former prisoners with job opportunities. He also writes that Waldorf schools and other humanistic teaching traditions have key roles to play in reasserting human values. There is nothing new about his reform strategies, writes Keen; they have been used to meet earlier disruptions, including the 19th-century industrial revolution.Valuable insights on preserving our humanity in a digital world.

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February 1, 2018

Commentator and entrepreneur Keen (The Internet Is Not the Answer) looks to the past, using Thomas More's Utopia as a touchpoint, to address the role of humans in a technology-dominated present and future. Referencing Gordon Moore's 1965 Law, which predicted the rapid acceleration of computing power, Keen posits Thomas More's Law as the responsibility of human beings to better the world in humanistic ways. Through these travels, Keen contrasts tech-savvy Estonia, and its focus on openness and data integrity, with Russia and its manipulation of data to undermine truth. He similarly compares Singapore, which uses technology to build citizen trust in government, with China, which applies technology to upend trust and consolidate power. Noting that social and economic ills of the digital age mirror those of the Industrial Revolution, Keen argues that reforms once unimagined (e.g., free public education) are now so ingrained in most societies that their absence is unthinkable. He asserts that today's challenges can be met through a combination of regulation, innovation, civic responsibility, consumer choice, and education. VERDICT Recommended for technologists, policymakers, and consumers, this book builds a case for using lessons of the past and capacities of the present to build a livable, global future in which digital innovation serves the social good.--Janet Ingraham Dwyer, State Lib. of Ohio, Columbus

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2017
When innovators created the World Wide Web, they envisioned a free sharing of ideas and information. What they didn't foresee was a takeover by four giants (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google) and the release of unedited and unsubstantiated news. Keen (The Internet Is Not the Answer, 2015), who has spent his career warning of the dangers of the Internet, takes a more positive turn in this complex yet accessible study. Comparing our current situation to the Industrial Revolution, he stresses the importance of keeping humanity at the center of technology. He travels to Estonia, Singapore, India, Germany, China, and Oakland to interview major players in the technological world. Keen's quest inspired him to formulate a five-part cure for our online woes, including government or legal regulation, competitive innovation, citizen social responsibility, consumer choice, and education. The key, according to Keen, is to return trust and transparency to the mix, along with political and social change. He feels that the upcoming generation ultimately will overturn our current business models and reform the digital world to make it accountable and trustworthy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)