In this National Security Podcast, Zac Rogers and Katherine Mansted talk about why political leaders have long been attracted to the idea that technology is a revolutionary key to progress and power. They also discuss how ideas about technology and modernity have animated brutal political regimes, global business models, and ideologies – from Leninism to Maoism. From China’s emerging brand of ‘techno-authoritarianism’ to the ‘technological nihilism’ of some Silicon Valley companies, we ask how emerging technologies are shaping politics, power, and security.

Hugely powerful digital corporations shape our daily preferences and behaviours, and potentially even our brains. Is the digital revolution on track to be an ‘organ transplant the body rejects’? How can governments tame technology to serve their interests and values? And what would a whole-of-society conversation about digital democracy look like?

Zac Rogers is Research Lead at the newly-established Jeff Bleich Centre for the US Alliance in Digital Technology, Security, and Governance at Flinders University. His research explores the impact of digital transformation on Australia’s security, national interests, defence planning, and strategy.

Katherine Mansted is a Senior Adviser for Public Policy at the National Security College and a Non-resident Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

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