I don’t know much about judo or any of the similar martial arts, but I gather one of the central features is the ability to use the power and momentum of the attacker to your advantage.When you are attacked, the trick is to turn the aggressor’s energy back on itself. Defence becomes attack. Aggression is […]
“We are as gods and might as well get used to it.”
I’ve borrowed the title for this blog from a recent review article from Foreign Affairs. It references Stewart Brand’s introduction to the first issue of The Whole Earth Catalog, “an encyclopedic compendium of resources for back-to-the-land living that became a foundational document of Silicon Valley’s techno-utopian culture.” This wonderful review essay is built around a […]
Artificial intelligence: a registry of power
I am reading Atlas of AI by Kate Crawford, partly because of an interest in all things digital (and the AI ‘thing’ is hot and hotter) and partly because I am a member of the NSW Government’s AI Advisory Committee. The book is a powerful thesis from a significant thinker and practitioner that suggests a […]
The New Orthodoxy
Why we need a critical review of digital transformation of government and the public sector in Australia to support human flourishing through sustainable and shared prosperity. Australia needs a critical review of 20 years of digital transformation of government and the public sector to provide an honest and tough-minded critique of what’s been done and […]
Digital transformation strategy 2.0
This is a short submission (copied in full below) I made to the current rewrite of Australia’s digital strategy being curated by the Digital Transformation Agency. Its main message is that digital transformation needs to think bigger and take itself more seriously. No disrespect to the complex and difficult technical, often transactional work that is […]
Ask not…pianos and the immortal human spirit: reflections on democratic renewal
Now, if this spirit is of the essence of democracy, can we rightly say that we have understood or practised it. For, if man is to be adjusted to man, if we are to live together in mutual amity and justice, if we are to be dignified without being proud or overbearing, we must be […]
