Humanitas Visiting Professor in Media 2013: Eric Schmidt
The Humanitas Chair in Media has been made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation
Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman, Google) will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power.
Abstract
Our history is littered with examples of mass murder and genocide and the worst atrocities man can do unto fellow man. In the future, massacres on a genocidal scale will be harder to conduct.
But discrimination will likely worsen and become more personal. Increased connectivity within societies will provide practitioners of discrimination, whether official or led by citizens, with entirely new ways to marginalize minorities and other disliked groups, whose own use of technology will make them easier to target.
In this case, connection will be working against peace. Governments that are used to repressing minorities in the physical world have a whole new set of options in the virtual world, and those that figure out how to combine their policies in both worlds will be that much more effective at repression.
