How close do you think we are to this kind of automation ?
I think this is very far away . Where we are right now is in a world where there is a crisis of current democracy , but there ’ s also a world with a generalised lack of trust in institutions , compared to the past . Additionally there ’ s less trust in technology , and on the other hand , we do not have technology that is ready to replace our institutions at the moment . I see this as a lifelong journey . I don ’ t think I will see augmented democracy implemented at a national scale in my lifetime , but I do think that some point , during the 21st century , we are going to have to transition to other forms of government that include more and more digital components , you know . That ’ s one of the biggest questions we have right now .
Yes .
Do you like Star Wars ?
Do you remember Episode 1 ?
Oh , I haven ’ t actually watched the prequels , just the original trilogy .
In episode 1 on Star Wars , they tell you how it all starts with Palpatine , you know . They had this world in which they could travel at warp speed and travel across the galaxy and they had all these technologies , but they still had some sort of democratic system in a parliament that couldn ’ t get anything done . In the context of that inefficient parliament , the empire emerges . In a way , Star Wars is a story about the emergence of populism in the context of an inefficient democracy in which technology is advanced but institutions are not . I think in our society we are getting to that point . A big challenge of the 21st century is for institutions to catch up to technology because if that mismatch continues to grow , we might end up on the wrong side of these outcomes . Our institutions will use technology for possibly authoritarian purposes rather than us using technology to achieve more democratic solutions for the way we organise collectively .