Cennydd Bowles

Cennydd is a technology ethicist and futurist, author of Future Ethics, and recently a Fulbright Scholar at Elon University, North Carolina. His views on the ethics of emerging technology and design have been quoted by Forbes, WIRED, and The Wall Street Journal. He’s spoken on responsible innovation at Facebook, Stanford University, and Google, and has just completed a Masters in Practical Ethics from the University of Oxford.

After a wounding tech crash, we hobble into 2025 to see Silicon Valley execs spewing hate speech, cheering the demolition of consumer protections, and bending the knee to the war industry. And around every corner lurk the weird ghosts of automation, hallucinating future interfaces or inventing synthetic users that eliminate the need to talk to real people.

After so long wielding the weapon of disruption, maybe we’re due a turn staring down its barrel. How should we react? One option is to admit defeat, to go with the flow and cash the paycheque. But another is to raise a new flag. The world is crying out for new visions of the future: worlds in which technology is compassionate, not just profitable; where AI is responsible, not just powerful. The good old days are over. Time to make good new days.

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