'GeoTechnoGraphy' book offers cold comfort in the rise of digital tech

From Big Tech's grip on daily life to the rise of new tribalism, the perils of digital technology are all too clear. Samir Saran & Anirban Sarma's book is bound to jolt you from complacency

GEOTECHNOGRAPHY: Mapping Power and Identity in the Digital Age

Author: Samir Saran & Anirban Sarma

Publisher: Penguin/Viking

Pages: 201

Price: ₹699

 

This book is sweeping in its scope and in terms of the trends and ideas it explores and examines. It looks at how technology is reshaping our world — from its impact on communities to civic engagement and to the way it even blurs geographical boundaries. And to explore and understand these, it does not merely stick to geography, technology and current times — it goes back in history, primarily European history, to examine the impact of Magna Carta on England and the Peace of Westphalia on warring European kingdoms. While the Magna Carta created a formal legal rights system, the Peace of Westphalia — essentially two treaties signed in 1648 that led to the end of the 30-year-war and the 80-year-war — gave rise to the concept of territorial integrity and state sovereignty.

 

The Westphalian Principles, as the authors point out, spread beyond European borders. Of course, territorial integrity and state sovereignty did not mean the end of wars or annexation of territories or anything of that sort. The French and US revolutions and multiple wars followed but, overall, certain principles had become embedded in what one can term as Western societies. This is all explored in the first chapter of the book.

 

In the next chapter, the authors go on to examine the impact of the Internet and the World Wide Web (or the Cyberspace) on communities. Online communities, they point out, have an impact far beyond geographical borders. The rise of outsourcing work is an easy example explored earlier as well in other works. But the authors also point to how the efforts to save Mumbai’s Aarey Forests gained national attention, far beyond the local populace. Using social media, the activists managed to rally concerned citizens across the country and beyond.

 

The authors examine the early days of the Internet, the development of walled gardens and gated communities in cyberspace and the rise of new tribalism. They also note the diminishing authenticity caused by the rise of fake news on the Internet. The biases and prejudices built into algorithms of all kinds are also examined in some depth.

 

The book moves on to explore the way digital technologies, the Internet and the rise of social media has affected individualism and also the individuals relationship with others, the personal and the interpersonal, and how digital connectivity even impacts the way we identify ourselves.

 

The rise of Big Tech and their increasing power over not just ordinary citizens but entire governments is examined in some detail. The efforts to censor social media platforms in different countries have not worked out particularly well. Nor have governments been able to create robust regulation for the digital world — though the European Union is farthest along the way in terms of protecting the rights of citizens. The problem is that now the Big Tech of Silicon Valley has grown so powerful that they can influence elections and governments continents away. Of course, if an autocratic government so desires, it can still stamp out digital freedom and bring rich, powerful tech tycoons to heel —as China has shown. But most nations prefer to see if they can strike a balance between the progress of technology and the freedom it offers while regulating the worst effects of it. The latter has been only a limited success — and that is being generous.

 

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence — particularly the powerful large language models (LLMs) and the race towards artificial general intelligence (AGI) pose fresh dangers. Digital technologies can now well undermine the old, established principles of yore — including the Westphalian principles. Powerful technology barons could upend the sovereignty of states, upset long held common norms and principles and even upturn international institutions and global agreements.

 

There are potential remedies that the authors explore at the end of the book — except that how well they will work depends on the state’s own ability to create proper regulations and enforce them. But if the state itself has been compromised or co-opted by Big Tech, this may  be a tall order.

 

The book is written in an easy language but it is not an easy book to read. Each idea explored in the book demands attention and contemplation. Nor is it a very comforting book. The dangers of this rise in digital technologies — something that cannot be reversed or even slowed — are all too apparent to the reader. Apart from excessive power in the hands of tech barons, the problems of fake news, the overt influence of social media in determining elections, the dangers include the digital Badlands, the frauds and cybercrimes and the rise of hate and the multiplier effects of online bullying.

 

The book is not meant to make you feel good — it is bound to jolt you from complacency. And that makes it an extremely important book for everyone whose life has been touched by digital technologies.

 

 The reviewer is former editor, Business Today  and Businessworld  and editor, Prosaicview.com, www.prosaicview.com