What we are currently reading – SNV’s book recommendations: Newsletter July 2021

Kate Crawford's latest book demystifies artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and brings them to life in an impressive way. The American scholar and leading scientist at Microsoft Research navigates through different levels of AI and illustrates how they are embedded in very real, contemporary power structures and have a direct impact on real lives. Beginning with the extraction of mineral resources for hardware components, followed by the impact on manufacturing and human labour, to the social and political consequences through the development and application of software, Crawford highlights that the danger is not solely on the digital superpower of AI. Rather, the danger lies in the fact that AI perpetuates social inequalities and is an instrument for the exploitation of people and nature. Read by Julia Hess.

Big tech companies like Google, Amazon and Tencent are not only affecting our everyday lives, they are also having an enormous impact on the functional logic and power structures of the economy. Sociologist Philipp Staab explores In his book the question of what is the particular new, the analytical core of current developments in the context of the digitalisation of the economy. In his analysis of this new power dynamic between private corporations and state actors, Staab highlights the working conditions of digital capitalism as a central element and ends with interesting reflections on the possibilities of digital capitalism shaped by European interests. Read by Mouna Smaali.

China's industrial espionage frequently leads to international political disputes as well as intensive media coverage. But how does the theft of intellectual property or technologies work in practice? How and with what success do security authorities counteract it? And how do politicians and governments in the USA and other Western countries react? "The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage" by Mara Hvistendahl answers these questions. The book by former China correspondent of Science Magazine is an exciting, in-depth and critical analysis of an industrial espionage case in the globalised seed and agricultural industry that began in 2011 in a cornfield in the US state of Iowa. A must-read for anyone interested in the ongoing technological race and the related political disputes between the USA, China and Europe. Read by Sebastian Rieger.

This book is about the precarious, modern working class in our current, mostly digital service economy. It is more female and diverse than before and is characterised by precariousness, financial injustice and the loss of solidarity in the world of work. Even though this is not primarily about digitalisation, a picture of the modern world of work with its lack of career opportunities, declining wages and precarious employment cannot be drawn without looking at online commerce and the gig economy. For this, Friedrichs chooses a thrilling form of storytelling: she connects concrete stories and realities of the life of individual persons to create a "big picture" at the end. Read by Kilian Vieth-Ditlmann.

A world with more robotics, more algorithms and more digitalisation would also be a world in which political, social and ethical questions are being raised differently in our society. Today, not only classical disciplines such as computer science and engineering are involved in human-machine interactions, but increasingly also designers. That is why the Vitra Design Museums in Weil am Rhein made an exhibition dedicated to the topic of robotics and design in 2017. The accompanying exhibition catalogue "Hello, Robot" not only shows pictures of the exhibits but also places them in the context of social issues. The eye-catching layout, by the way, was created by an algorithm. Read by Leonie Beining.

In his series of novels, Charles Stross tells the story of a British employee of a security agency and his colleagues. This agency deals with the defence against occult dangers. In Stross' world, Lovecraftian monsters can be conjured up from another dimension through mathematical calculations, mainly supported by computers. Cyberpunk meets Cthulhu. The fact that especially the bureaucratic processes and political decisions don't sound so much like sci-fi, but sound surprisingly realistic, has its comedy. Read by Sven Herpig.

With examples from the Neanderthals to New Work models, the Dutch historian makes clear why humanity would be wise to trust and have more faith in each other. Regardless of the decade or the area of life, from civil courage to the justice system: a leap of faith and trust will be rewarded by friendly behaviour and will pay off - financially, socially and psychologically. This plea for a more optimistic way of thinking couldn't be more appropriate for the present: Through digitalisation, we are facing many important decisions in which we should not allow ourselves to be guided by the deceptive picture that our fellow human beings are "fundamentally bad". Read by Johanna Famulok.

In this recently published book, York highlights important turning points in dealing with content moderation and censorship on social media platforms and illustrates the power such platforms can have. Although there are examples such as the "Arab Spring" that remind us that social media can connect like-minded people, it is not only demonstrators against authoritarian regimes who use social media. On the other side, "white supremacists" and right-wing populists, in particular, find their own space on social networks to mobilise and hate. The author knows how to contextualise these debates in terms of power politics: While it is social minorities and oppressed groups that experience hate speech and discrimination, they are still hardly represented in political or economic negotiation processes around platforms and their business models. Read by Julian Jaursch.

It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. In other words and reading this line from SNV's point of view: When you work in a tech think tank, every topic looks like "digitalisation". However, Schäfer and Zürn's book impressively shows that many modern democratic problems we encounter in our everyday work - populism, loss of trust in democratic institutions, etc. - do become more visible through digitalisation, for example through the digital spread of disinformation. However, they are neither a direct effect of digitalisation nor is there a digital solution to them. Instead, the authors emphasise the need for better democratic representation, for example of skilled workers instead of academics in parliaments. Read by Anna-Katharina Meßmer.

Already ten years old but more relevant than ever: "The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of the Information Empires" by Tim Wu. Not only does the book offer exciting insights into the development, spread and use of information technologies and the related economic conflicts between dominant companies and their innovative challengers. What makes it special is Tim Wu's political view: the question of access to and control of information strikes at the heart of our democracy and is now at the centre of our debate about the global information empires from Silicon Valley. Read by Stefan Heumann.