Photo by Robert Scoble.
Politics and technology play nicely with each other, in the sense that each facilitates the other’s progress. I don’t mean “progress” positively, but neutrally — just movement forward through time, not necessarily improvement.
I’m not talking about the evolution of media changing how powerful people spread information, nor am I referring to the ongoing Crypto Wars. Those phenomena are important, but they’re relatively micro-level concerns. I’m talking about technology on the scale of the Industrial Revolution, which was defined by the steam engine but encompassed a variety of innovations, eventually enabling the modern factory.
Tech analysts like Ben Thompson have argued that the Computing Revolution (or whatever history might dub it) will cause upheaval comparable to the global fallout from the Industrial Revolution, which materially contributed to various wars, including revolutions in formerly colonized countries.
Technology and politics are tied together by economics, which is more important than either. (Money > enfranchisement.) “Economics” is just a fancy word for “resource allocation”, and computers have changed how we do this. What second- and third-order effects will manifest as the century continues to unroll? No idea, but globalization is going to be a helluva ride.
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