Book of the week

Jamie Susskind : Future Politics - Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech

Photo: MESZL

According to the story (or anecdote), when there were only a few steps to invent electricity by Michael Faraday, and he presented to English Prime Minister what he found,  the Prime Minister asked what was it good for in the long run; Michael Faraday answered:  „You can tax it some day."

The author of the Book of the week, Jamie Susskind began his book review lecture with the story mentioned above. The principal idea of FUTURE POLITICS by Susskind (2018) is that the politics and technology of the future will be interwoven. A problem that seem to be technical and technological at first, it may turn to be totally political problem (see the case of the self-driving car / autonomous car which stops by police's signal despite that we instructed it to go on)

Here is a quote taken from the lecture:

„The self-driving car example is an example of power, plain and simple : a technology getting us to do something we wouldn’t otherwise do, or not to do something we would otherwise have done. [...] Power, freedom, democracy, justice - these concepts are the currency of politics, and increasingly - I argue in Future Politics - they’re the currency of technology.[...] Technology is transforming the way we live together.” --- to be continued in the lecture (and in the book); there is a link to the lecture at the end of the text.

(After the library is reopened, the volumes of the book reviews uploaded on Mondays will be available in Free Access Area, at the table marked "New Foreign Books on Sociology".  Relevant regulations can be seen on library website:  http://fszek.hu/)

Sources and more readings:

Book review and lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcPJjOJO1vo

Book review in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/.../future-politics-living...