Helbing Dirk .Towards Digital Enlightenment: Essays on the Dark and Light Sides of the Digital Revolution

Springer International Publishing, 2019. — 222 p. — ISBN 978-3319908687, 3319908693.This new collection of essays follows in the footsteps of the successful volume Thinking Ahead - Essays on Big Data, Digital Revolution, and Participatory Market Society, published at a time when our societies were on a path to technological totalitarianism, as exemplified by mass surveillance reported by Edward Snowden and others.
Meanwhile the threats have diversified and tech companies have gathered enough data to create detailed profiles about almost everyone living in the modern world - profiles that can predict our behavior better than our friends, families, or even partners. This is not only used to manipulate peoples’ opinions and voting behaviors, but more generally to influence consumer behavior at all levels. It is becoming increasingly clear that we are rapidly heading towards a cybernetic society, in which algorithms and social bots aim to control both the societal dynamics and individual behaviors.Preface.
Acknowledgments.
The World Today: A Net Assessment.
Planet Earth Is in Trouble.
Misleading Indicators.
Fallout from the Financial Crisis.
Talk of World War III.
Time to Start a New Chapter of Human History.
Takeaways.
Why Our Innovation System Is Failing and How to Change This.
The Innovation Crisis.
An Outdated Innovation System.
Forget About Determining the Best Innovations Beforehand!
Everyone Wants Innovations, but Opposes Them!
Detecting Game-Changing Ideas and the Innovators Behind Them.
Chance: The True Father of New Ideas?
Social Factors Matter.
Re-inventing Innovation.
Micropayments Are Better Than Protecting Intellectual Property.
Further Reading.
The Hidden Danger of Big Data.
Machine Intelligence: Blessing or Curse? It Depends on Us!
A Worst-Case Scenario.
A Best-Case Scenario.
Appendix: Some Common Pitfalls of Data-Driven Technologies.
Big Data Analytics.
Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Big Nudging.
Further Reading.
An Extension of Asimov´s Robotics Laws.
References.
Societal, Economic, Ethical and Legal Challenges of the Digital Revolution: From Big Data to Deep Learning, Artificial
Intelligence, and Manipulative Technologies.
Overview of Some New Digital Technology Trends.
Big Data.
Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Super-Intelligence.
Persuasive Technologies and Nudging to Manipulate Individual Decisions.
Attempt of a Technology Assessment.
Problems with Big Data Analytics.
Problems with Artificial Intelligence and Super-Intelligence.
Problems with Manipulative («Persuasive») Technologies.
Recommendations
Recommendations Regarding Big Data
Recommendations Regarding Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Recommendations Regarding Manipulative Technologies
Summary, Conclusions and Discussion
Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence?
Is This Alarmism?
Programmed Society, Programmed Citizens.
Pre-programmed Catastrophes.
Legal Issues.
A Better Digital Society Is Possible.
A Strategy for the Digital Age.
Democratic Platforms.
Further Reading.
Digital Fascism Rising?
Features of Digital Societies.
Saving Democracy.
Manipulating Behavior.
Countering Digital Totalitarianism.
Concerning Global Events.
Takeaways.
The Birth of a Digital God.
To the Elites of the World: Time to Act.
A Final Call to Action
Rethinking the World Economy: From Push to Pull
A New Social Contract
Reform of the United Nations
Upgrade of Today´s Capitalism
Democratic Capitalism, Crowd Funding for All
Reforms of the Financial System
Digital Upgrade of Democracy («Digital Democracy»)
Design and Operation of Information and Other Man-Made Systems
Guiding Principles for a «Golden Age of Prosperity and Peace».
Why We Need Democracy 2.0 and Capitalism 2.0 to Survive
The Perfect Storm: Resource Shortages and Other Crises.
Why Our Socio-economic System Fails.
Future Scenarios.
The Way Out: There Is a Better, Alternative Future.
What Can Now be Done.
Democracy 2.0 and Capitalism 2.0: The Perfect Couple.
Summary, Discussion, and Outlook.
Heading Towards the Illuminated Age.
How to Make Democracy Work in the Digital Age.
Brexit, Trump, AfD: Is the Internet Creating Protest Voters?
Politics Is Not One-dimensional.
Democracy 2.0: How to Harness Collective Intelligence by Digital Means.
Overcome the Dictatorship of the Majority.
Counterbalance Misinformation/Spread of Extreme Views Through (Social) Media.
Deliberation and Influence Exercised Through Ranking, Voting and Discussions.
The Blockchain Age: Awareness, Empowerment and Coordination.
From War Rooms to Peace Rooms: A Proposal for the Pro-Social Use of Big Data Intelligence.
Transparency and Participatory Opportunities are Important.
Participatory Resilience and Sustainability.
New Security Approaches for the Twenty-First Century: How to Support Crowd Security and Responsibility.
The «Balance of Threat» Can be Unstable.
Limits of the Sanctioning Approach.
How to Manage a Multi-polar World?
In the Emerging Digital Society, How Much Secrecy Is Still Essential?
What Alternatives Might We Have to Create a New Security Architecture?
Crowd Security Rather Than Super Powers.
How Then Can We Generalize This Within an International Context?
The Immune System as Prime Example.
Turning Enemies into Friends.
Managing the Chat Room.
Embedding in Our Current Institutional System.
Ending Over-Regulation.
Pluralistic, Community-Driven Reputation Systems.
Creating a Trend to the Better.
Summary.
Homo Socialis: The Road Ahead.
Evolution of the «Homo Socialis».
Limitations of Equilibrium Theory.
Role of Randomness.
An Alternative Foundation of Decision Theory.
Beyond Rational Choice.
Gene-Culture Co-evolution.
Importance and Origin of Morality.
Role of Data and Experiments.
References.
Social Mirror: More Success Through Awareness and Coordination.
What´s the Problem?
How the Idea Came About.
Mapping Human Culture.
How Would the Social Mirror Work?
Social Adapter and Intercultural Guide.
The Importance of Social Capital.
Trust and Power.
Creating Social Capital.
Digitization 2.0: A New Game Begins.
«Bread and Circuses».
Total Transformation of the Economy.
«Democratic Capitalism».
Behavioral and Social Control?
«Digital Judgment Day».
«Deadly Danger».
A Digital Ecosystem.
New Incentive System.