Is deze technologie de basis van een nieuw utopisch vooruitzicht van de vrije mens? Of is het juist een middel van ultieme controle die ongemerkt al onze vrijheden beperkt tot datgene wat goed is voor het steeds nauwer geformuleerde ‘algemeen belang’?
Global decentralised standards for digital personal- and product identity are needed for a world of 10 billion. Applications built on these standards will have to cater to local need for relevance, immediacy and personal freedom, as well as the central needs for coordination and efficiency. But we need to adopt these with both a sense of urgency and inevitability, as well as a sense of human proportionality and a firm dedication to personal freedom and layers of protection against tyrannical government. Or we stand to lose both to the ever present threat of the dictatorship of best intentions.
Well before the pandemic, there was a cultural war happening over values. Contrary to what many believe, these values are not left wing versus right wing ideologies, or progressivism versus conservatism. The struggle is only framed in this way due to coincidental polarization in politics and wealth distribution. I’m talking about the tension between two …