Democracy
AI Can Still Be Redirected
Final response: It is not too late to put technology to work to create jobs and opportunities and to support individual freedom and democracy.
Beyond the Automation-Only Approach
AI doesn’t have to be a total substitution. It can be a supplement.
The Punitive Potential of AI
The problems go beyond the abstractions of democracy and liberty. New workplace technologies cater to punitive practices.
Augmentation, Not Automation
When it comes to AI’s effect on the workforce, the real challenge is wages, not jobs.
The Means of Prediction
Discussions about “fairness” don’t go far enough. We need to think more deeply about who controls data and algorithms.
Why Aren’t We Talking about Farmers in India?
They are fighting in a global war over the future of agriculture. Modi is chocking the debate.
The Menthol Cigarette Ban Shows There Is No Democracy Without Petitions
The menthol cigarette citizen’s petition recalls the lost political tradition of petition democracy, when not only could the complaints of any citizen get a hearing, but that hearing would occur publicly—in Congress.
Why Democracy Needs…
Privacy. Women. Archives. No Cops. Practice. Losers. And more in today’s reading list.
Science Doesn’t Work That Way
Its authority derives not from unbiased scientists but from the institutions and norms that structure their work.
Polarization or Propaganda?
Two theories paint very different pictures of the sources of our democratic dysfunction. The debate won’t be settled by accusations of political convenience.
Why Democracy Needs Privacy
The more someone knows about us, the more they can influence us. We can wield democratic power only if our privacy is protected.
Spectacle and Social Murder in Pandemic India
Narendra Modi’s government has used lockdown to force further neoliberalization and continue its assault on pro-democracy activists.
The Value of Truth
At a time of anxiety about fake news and conspiracy theories, philosophy can contribute to our most urgent cultural and political questions about how we come to believe what we think we know.
How Law Made Neoliberalism
If we are to emerge from this era of crisis, we need legal thinking that operates on fundamentally different presumptions.
From Revolution to Reformism
Leaders of the left abandoned the language of transformation in the 1980s—at a cost. Can it be regained?