Computer Says Maybe Digitisation, Privatisation, and Human Centipedes: Our Learnings from 2025
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Dec 19, 2025 Reflecting on 2025, the hosts dive into digitization as a tool for privatization and its impact on democracy. They discuss the troubling trend of outsourcing government tasks to private entities, which can erode public trust. The conversation touches on AI, surveillance culture, and how community care can be more effective than top-down monitoring. They explore Taiwan's vital role in global chip manufacturing and challenge the notion of security tied to its dominance. Finally, the episode critiques multi-level marketing's exploitation disguised as opportunity.
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Digitisation Became Privatisation
- Decades of digitisation have functionally outsourced core government functions to private tech firms, creating dependency and loss of in-house expertise.
- That shift transfers critical decision-making to actors driven by profit, not public-interest mandates.
Prioritize Core Capacity Over AI Hype
- Build government capacity first: hire talent, implement basic security like two-factor authentication, and invest in predictable infrastructure before adding flashy AI projects.
- Avoid outsourcing critical trust functions to vendors when you can't explain how systems or models make decisions.
Surveillance Isn't Safety
- Surveillance technologies are often sold as safety but broken social infrastructure, like lack of streetlights and community ties, causes most harm.
- Outsourced surveillance produces watched communities rather than cared-for ones, eroding trust and prevention.