If we outsource decision-making to AI and spend all our time chatting with chatbots rather than with fellow humans, we are unlikely to develop the civic skills that we need for coordinated collective action.


If we outsource decision-making to AI and spend all our time chatting with chatbots rather than with fellow humans, we are unlikely to develop the civic skills that we need for coordinated collective action.

The use of LLMs by people lacking expertise and experience, and for purposes they were not originally intended for, is, on the one hand, a fine example of technological generativity; on the other hand, it is having profound and consequential effects on trust relationships.

The author examines the premise that individuals and teams of individuals matter decisively to technological change, and that biographies matter in a way that the prevailing social shaping paradigm either ignores, misunderstands, trivializes, or caricatures.

Digital enterprises have become increasingly monopolistic, individualistic beyond narcissistic to the point of lamentably solipsistic, devastatingly careless of human potential, and environmentally wasteful.

One of the biggest challenges of teaching such a course is the remarkable pace of change in technology and the societal response. The curriculum is in near constant evolution and must explicitly address how students should develop their continuous learning skills.

More than anything, building the future we want requires the courage and hope to imagine something radically different from the world we live in now.