Ro Khanna - Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us

Foreword by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen

Dignity in a Digital Age

Making Tech Work for All of Us

Ro Khanna

Silicon Valley Member of Congress

Simon & Schuster

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Copyright 2022 by Rohit Khanna

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition February 2022

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Interior design by Ruth Lee-Mui

Jacket design by Adly Elewa

Jacket photograph Courtesy of Nasa

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Khanna, Ro, author.

Title: Dignity in a digital age : making tech work for all of us / Ro Khanna.

Description: New York : Simon & Schuster, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021041629 (print) | LCCN 2021041630 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982163341 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982163365 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Information economyUnited States. | Information technologyEconomic aspectsUnited States. | Information technologySocial aspectsUnited States. | Economic developmentUnited States. | Digital divideUnited States. | EqualityUnited States.

Classification: LCC HC110.I55 K43 2022 (print) | LCC HC110.I55 (ebook) | DDC 330.973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021041629

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021041630

ISBN 978-1-9821-6334-1

ISBN 978-1-9821-6336-5 (ebook)

For Ritu, Soren, and Zara

Foreword

BY AMARTYA SEN

W. B. Yeats worried about things falling apart when peoples differences turn destructive. This can, obviously, be a cause for alarm. And yet a well-thought-out understanding of an integrated society can accommodate many useful diversities within it. Ro Khannas beautifully written book, Dignity in a Digital Age, offers a graceful picture of the coexistence of disparate ways of living, allowing justice and fairness. People can jointly benefit from richly varying opportunities which can be made accessible to all, even though they come fromand have background inmany different communities.

Dignity in a Digital Age is an exciting book, written by a much admired U.S. congressman who is also an innovative social thinker. Whether we consider the future of America, or of other places, we have reason to be grateful to Ro Khanna. There is much foundational work to be done in the problem-ridden world in which we live, and it is wonderful to find a treasure trove of creative proposals to address the unique challenges of the digital age.

The technological world has been moving ahead offering potentially huge opportunities to people across the world. And yet differences in the practical possibility of making good use of technology has also on many occasions split up people in many ways, linked to their history, location, ethnicity, and inherited and acquired capabilities. Khanna is hostile to inequality but determined to promote the best possible use of opportunities for all. With adequate preparation and discernment, and being intelligently guided by democratic principles, we can move in that attractive direction. No community need be excluded from getting the benefits of new technology, which has to be a crucial component of any robust development strategy.

Will our diversity allow us to still coalesce around a common identity in the constructive way outlined by Khanna? His hope for democratic patriotism where we each have an equal opportunity to shape national culture and embrace a spirit of civility to appreciate and resolve differences is well reasoned. In the process he also draws inspiration from Frederick Douglass, the enslaved person who fought forand achievedfreedom, and proceeded to fight inequalities of all kinds, including slavery. Our diversity, Khanna observes, allows us to harness the talents of different groups, challenging our ideas, pushing us to improve, and perhaps most important (here he quotes Douglass directly) avoiding the arrogance and intolerance which are almost the inevitable concomitants of general conformity.

Khanna defends strongly the right of the people to move and choose their locationan issue of much contemporary relevance. However, even though migration may play a part in the realization of Khannas vision, it is not something on which he relies. Just as people can move to technology, technology too can move to people. People need not be compelled to relocate from one place to another to reap the benefits offered by technological progress. He points out that the nature of modern technology allows its wide use in communities previously untouched by modernity or radical change. He offers ideas for facilitating constructive dialogue on digital platforms in search of mutual understanding to overcome divergent social realities.

What is important is to be guided by carefully examined human values related to the process of development. Democratic reasoning has to play a central role in examining and celebrating the opportunities that people benefit fromwithout their having to be personally flung across the world to make use of what exists. There will of course be much to discuss on how exactly to proceed, but that is the nature of democracy, particularlyas John Stuart Mill has taught uswhen we learn to see democracy as governance by discussion. We have reason to be grateful to Ro Khanna for the insights he presents in this splendidly written book.

DEMOCRATIZING THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

After the coal industry took a hit in Eastern Kentucky, Alex Hughess business went under. Alex found himself unemployed for nearly six months in what was the lowest period of his life. Nearly two decades earlier, Alex was stabbed in the face by a drunk stranger, and the scar still stretches across his jaw and cheek. If given the choice, Alex told me, he would prefer being stabbed again to losing the business he owned for fifteen years and going without work.

When youre unemployed, Alex explained, No one sees youre injured. But a lack of income can be a lot more stressful than physical trauma when your family depends on you. He lost his house and car, and he worried constantly about his wife and family. Some of his unemployed friends began drinking, while others saw marriages dissolve. Unemployment leaves scars of its own. To this day, even when times are good, Alex still fears he could lose everything at any moment.