Andrew Keen - Tomorrows Versus Yesterdays: Conversations in Defense of the Future

TOMORROWS
vs
YESTERDAYS

Also by Andrew Keen

How to Fix the Future

The Internet Is Not the Answer

Digital Vertigo

The Cult of the Amateur

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Atlantic Books,
an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd.

Copyright DLD Media GmbH, 2020

The right of DLD Media GmbH to be identified as the proprietor of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN: 978 1 83895 112 2

E-book ISBN: 978 1 83895 113 9

Printed in Great Britain

Atlantic Books

An imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd

Ormond House

2627 Boswell Street

London

WC1N 3JZ

www.atlantic-books.co.uk

FOR THE TOMORROWS OF TODAY

Digitalization is rapidly transforming our world. It is one of the major driving forces of change in the last two decades. It is so drastic and unsettling that it fosters fear, sarcasm, and pessimism, and a longing for the good old days that felt more stable, less complex, and more humane. Of course, globalization, with its geopolitical conflicts, climate change, migration, and the shifting balance of economic power between West and East, is just as powerful a driver of change, but the boundless disruptive power of the digital revolution is behind it all.

When the internet was first made commonly available with the World Wide Web, we were all euphoric about its promise and the technologies that were developing alongside it. Everything was going to be easier and would allow us to reach higher, go faster, and further. On a societal level, the potential of a connected world, the proverbial global village, with shared knowledge and readily available information, was an exciting opportunity. The internet was thought to be the ultimate tool to ensure that democracy was finally going to spread across the globe like wildfire.

It was at this time that DLD was formed, to explore this new technology. In 2005, the year of the first DLD conference in Munich, there was no Twitter, no LinkedIn, and no Instagram. Facebook had just launched and Google was still a startup, but every new digital company was praised as a gamechanging business idea. We, as consumers, are still harvesting the positive outcomes of this wave of digitalization, which are being constantly reiterated in the shape of new products: realtime communication, from emailing and texting to video calls, custom search, online learning, video streaming, and online shopping and banking.

DLD connected the early digital adopters with the so-called old economy. Some industries had a hard time adapting and many went under, while others were able to reinvent themselves or diversify their business model; DLDs parent company, Hubert Burda Media, was able to transform from a printing and publishing house into a digital media and technology company.

The rapid rise of social media in the first decade of the twentyfirst century was embraced with enthusiasm. Mark Zuckerberg presented his social network at a DLD conference in Munich in 2009 in a conversation with David Kirkpatrick, who is featured in this book and has since become one of Facebooks most fervent critics.

When social media peaked, we were all posting, sharing, liking and commenting which led to an entirely new way of communicating and sharing content. Once again, digital services were celebrated as new tools to further democratize the planet. The Arab Spring made Twitter the medium of the oppressed, as people were able to make themselves heard with poignant messages and live footage that escaped state-controlled media propaganda.

All the while, the companies running these democratization tools gained unfathomable amounts of data about their users: their age, gender, and location, but also their likes, dislikes, habits, opinions, and beliefs a treasure trove that they could convert directly into advertising revenue. Never before had it been possible to play messages to more or less the exact group of people who were supposed to hear them.

Most of us do not object to receiving special offers for products that we like, information about books that we might be interested in, or music that might match our taste. We do not object to being presented with news stories that are relevant to us on social media or to commentaries by people whose views we share. We do not object to our cell phone guiding us through cities. Most of us are willing to share our data if we get a useful and apparently free service in return.

But where do we draw the line? When does sharing our data with a company with whom we never signed a contract of service become an invasion of our privacy? When does reading news that reconfirms our beliefs and watching content that matches our taste become manipulation that traps us in a bubble and reduces our view of the world to a one-dimensional picture? And who is responsible for filtering what we see, read, and consume on digital platforms?

These are some of the questions that have in recent years dampened the euphoria about the digital age. Cambridge Analytica, Brexit, and the Christchurch mosque shootings have brought criticism of the digital age and its major players, and there is a massive reluctance to comply with the speed of change. Statements like Privacy is over, Tech giants are taking over every market and stifle innovation, Millions of people will lose their jobs due to smart machines, and Elections are won with so-called alternative facts illustrate this development. This is much more than the eternal game of up and down, of yin and yang; with the digital age, we have opened Pandoras box. Alongside the excitement of digitalization, we have neglected to set the rules.

If history can teach us anything, it is that big societal and technological changes never come with a rule book attached be it the invention of the printing press, industrialization, or the French Revolution. Rules are formed by trial and error; they are discussed and fought over. And every big change in history has seen winners and losers; the question is whether the digital age can be one that brings opportunities for everyone. One thing is for sure: we will not find the answers to the questions that the digital revolution raises by looking to the past. The procedures of the pre-digital world no longer work when it comes to ensuring competition, fairness, and prosperity.

We are at the point in the digital revolution where we have to step up and rewrite the rules. If the internet and social media are tools for democratization, then we should use them as such. If new technologies, from artificial intelligence to blockchain and quantum computing, have the potential to make the world better, then let us embrace and learn about them. Let us not be sheep going along with the crowd, not asking, knowing, or daring.

We believe that digital technologies play an integral part in solving, or at least mitigating, current issues locally as well as globally. Digital communication platforms can help secure freedom of speech and encourage citizen engagement rather than spreading hate and disinformation, but we have to set the rules.