In this original and provocative book, Philip N. Howard envisions a new world order emerging from this great transformation in the technologies around us. Howard calls this new era a Pax Technica. He looks to a future of global stability built upon device networks with immense potential for empowering citizens, making government transparent, and broadening information access.

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Clay Shirky

Forget networking your toaster to your refrigerator—in Pax Technica, Howard brilliantly outlines the coming consequences of the Internet of Things, including altered norms of international governance. This is the most important work yet written on the subject, and the first to extend the logic of networked infrastructure to the global political stage.

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Anne-Marie Slaughter

Pax Technica is a bold and prophetic book. Even if you disagree with Howard’s conclusions, you will want to engage with his arguments. He sees our world in a genuinely new way.

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Kenneth Cukier

In this brilliant work of responsible optimism, Howard acknowledges the potential downsides of our data‐drenched society, but makes a compelling case for why we may live better, and govern ourselves sensibly, in the era of Pax Technica.

Essay for Brookings

How big is the Internet of Things? How big will it get?

Go to Brookings.com

Review in Financial Times

The political implications of the IoT will outstrip its commercial ones.

Go to FT.com

Wired Magazine Commentary

Politics won’t know what hit it. The Internet of Things is poised to change democracy itself.

Go to Wired.com

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What is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things is made up of networks of manufactured goods with embedded power supplies, small sensors, and an address on the internet. Most of these networked devices are everyday items that are sending and receiving data about their conditions and our behavior.

What is the Pax Technica?

The Pax Technica is a theory that technology diffusion-and the collaboration between high tech industries and governments-has brought about a peculiar form of political stability. It does not mean peace. It means structure, with political opportunities and costs we must evaluate now.

Is Technology Good for Civic Engagement?

The Internet of Things will be the most powerful political tool ever created. In Pax Technica, Phil Howard shows how it can be a tool for censorship and surveillance, or a means of promoting democracy and strengthening civic engagement around the world.

Will the Internet of Things Lock Us Up?

Pax Technica explains the political impact of the Internet of Things. Howard argues that it has the potential to give us great control over our political futures. With the expanding range of device networks comes an extraordinary opportunity for a new political era—the pax technica.