Donica, John. Review of Pax Technica by Philip N. Howard. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities (2017): 32(2), pp. 455–457, DOI: 10.1093/llc/fqx019.
Perhaps Howard’s prescriptions for what we can do to keep the Internet of Things from locking us up are a bit too upbeat and might be out of the question for many who do not have access to digital technologies or who do not have access to training to become more digitally savvy. In fairness to Howard regarding the first criticism, his book was published before the election of Donald Trump and revelations of Russian involvement in the US election through manipulating digital technologies. But Howard’s suggestion that ‘active engagement with the rollout of the internet of things is the last best change for an open society’ (p. xvii) is a call that echoes a truth in all democratically governed organizations and states: more participation and more voices at the table usually translate into more opportunities for shared governance.